After the promotions for Pretty U were over there was no down time because Pledis informed us that we would be having a repackage album and Woozi had been preparing for that. So when July came around we were back on stage with Very Nice!

This was such a different song for us since it was the first time the chorus was mainly focused on the instrumental than actual lyrics. But unfortunately Wonwoo wasn’t able to perform on stage with us due to his stomach problems so it felt incomplete onstage as he was just forced to wait backstage for us.

I just kept praying that he would get better so he could be okay to perform whenever we had our next comeback. Wonwoo was an important part of Seventeen and if it wasn’t all fourteen of us than it was incomplete.

“Have you guys heard this song?” Dino asked as he sat down in the living room. I looked up from my laptop as he began playing a song on his phone. “It’s like all the rage right now on the charts.” For once we had a weekend with no schedules and we were all basking in this little period of down time.

Listening to the song that Dino was playing I listened to the lyrics a few seconds before realizing the song was all in English. Joshua must have realized it to as his eyes lit up a little bit upon hearing the lyrics.

“Who is singing the song?” Joshua asked looking at Dino. “I like the melody of the song and the lyrics are cool too.” I nodded my head as we kept listening to the rest of the song. It was one of those songs that had one of those beat breakdowns during the chorus which I guess were popular pretty much everywhere.

“The song is called Closer,” Dino told us. “It’s by The Chainsmokers and it features someone named Halsey. That’s the girl singer.” After the song was over I looked it up on my laptop before downloading it. I really did like the song it was nice to listen to. “What is the song about?”

“From what I got from it,” I said after the song finished downloading, “The lyrics were kind of saying it was about a couple that had broken up but they really can’t get over each other. At least that’s what I got.”

“You two are lucky,” Dino said smiling up at Joshua and I. “And Vernon hyung too since you can speak both Korean and English fluently.” I just shrugged because at times I found it annoying having to switch back and forth from Korean to English but that was mainly when I was in Los Angeles.

“I liked the song,” Joshua said smiling. “It kind of makes me want to do an acoustic cover of it. I think that would be really good.” I nodded my head as I played the song on my laptop so we could listen to it again.

“Hey!” Dino exclaimed pointing to the two of us. “You two should do a cover of this and post it onto our Youtube channel! That would be really cool for you to do a cover of this song!” Joshua and I exchanged looks before nodding in agreement at the idea of doing a song cover. Joshua left the room before returning with his guitar as we listened to the song he began strumming notes that were in the same key of the song.

From the guitar playing to the song on my laptop Mingyu and Wonwoo eventually joined us in the living room as Dino told the two of them what Joshua and I were planning.

“That sounds like an awesome idea,” Wonwoo said smiling at the two of us. “I will be looking forward to it. I’m sure the fans would really love it as well.” Mingyu nodded his head but he really didn’t look to enthusiastic about the whole idea. He’d been acting moody for sometime now even after I’d talked to him before and it was really bothering me.

“Mingyu can I speak to you?” I asked standing up from the couch. I handed Wonwoo my computer before leaving the living room to head out into the hallway. I didn’t really care if he was following me but I knew he was. I needed to get to the bottom of this gloomy attitude that he was having especially around me.

Mingyu didn’t say anything as he followed me to the elevator before we took it up to the rooftop so we could talk with no interruptions. I sat down on the ground facing the glass wall that was the only protection from the huge fall off of the building.

“What is it hyung?” Mingyu finally asked as he sat down next to me. I turned to look at him frowning a little bit trying to word it so it didn’t come out sounding rude or accusing even though I really did want to accuse him about his weird attitude. “Skyler hyung?”

“Is there something that’s upsetting you?” I asked finally opening my mouth to speak to him. “You seem to always be in a kind of gloomy mood when I’m around you more so recently. So now I need to know if I did something wrong.” Mingyu widened his eyes before shaking his head quickly.

“No I am not in a mood hyung!” Mingyu exclaimed a little too quickly to pass it off as truth. Didn’t he know of the concept when you lied you tended to react to things a little too quickly? Or was that just me? “I am okay!”

“Are you sure?” I asked raising an eyebrow not buying it. “Because whenever I mention Joshua you kind of stop smiling.” Mingyu looked out in front of us at the city view, his shoulders deflating. “I was right wasn’t I?”

Mingyu didn’t say anything he just stared out ahead of us. I turned to face that way too just letting the quiet settle over us. The only sounds were the sounds of the city below us. I was going to let Mingyu explain before we left the rooftop.

“Okay,” Mingyu said slowly still refusing to look at me. “I will admit at times I get jealous because the two of you are so close with each other. Like super close. I just feel like most of the time you only want to be around him.” He covered his face in his hands letting out a light groan as he shook his head.

I blinked slowly processing the information before placing a hand on his shoulder patting it lightly. He looked over at me even though his hands were still covering the majority of his face.

“I didn’t realize,” I said smiling lightly at him. “I’m sorry if you feel like I’ve been neglecting you for Joshua.” I took a deep breath as I looked at him. Maybe I should tell him the truth about Joshua and I. I felt like Mingyu deserved to know the truth. “I have a secret to tell you.”

Mingyu looked at me with a confused face as he waited for me to tell him the secret. I was just nervous because I didn’t know how he was going to react. When Mingyu wanted to he could be very hard to read and this was one of those situations where I wasn’t too sure what to expect especially after he said he was a little jealous of Joshua.”

“The truth is this,” I said looking down at the ground. Damn we were really high up on the rooftop. The cars almost looked like ants from our position on the roof. “Joshua and I are in a relationship. We’ve been secretly dating since that beach trip last summer.”

I looked up after saying it trying to read Mingyu’s face but it was void of all emotions. He sighed a little bit before standing up towering over me. Eventually I stood up unable to take the thick wave of silence that had washed upon us.

“Good for you hyung,” Mingyu said after a while. “Good for both of you.” He turned around before leaving me on the rooftop all alone. I heard the door slam signaling he’d left. I didn’t move from the spot I was standing at not sure what to do. Was I supposed to run after him? Wouldn’t it be right to give him space?

Unsure of what to do and honestly nervous from Mingyu’s reaction I just walked around the rooftop not wanting to go back down to our dorm. I don’t know how much time passed but eventually the door to the rooftop opened. Keeping my eyes on the ground I heard a pair of footsteps making their way over to me, but I just kept walking.

A hand found mine as their fingers laced together with mine. Joshua’s hand, I’d recognize it anywhere. Hell I’d held it so many times since we’d became boyfriends it was almost impossible to not know his hand from everyone else’s.

“Hey,” he said quietly. I looked over at him briefly before resuming my gaze at the ground. He squeezed my hand lightly as we walked around the parameters of the rooftop. “Mingyu looked upset.”

“I told him the truth,” I said quietly. “I told him we were dating.” Joshua just let out a light sigh only making me feel tier then I already did. “Why don’t we just tell all of them? They’re our members and keeping it a secret feels like we’re saying we don’t trust them.”

Joshua stopped walking as the two of us stood side by side looking in front of us. The sun was setting now that I got a proper look at the sky. Just how long had I been up here since Mingyu had left me?

“I don’t know,” Joshua said quietly. “What if they don’t approve? What if one of them decides to tell the company? Then it’ll all be over.” He gripped my hand a little bit tighter. “I can’t risk it just yet.”

“So it’s not a no it’s just a not yet,” I responded. I saw from the corner of my eye Joshua nod his head. “We’ll eventually tell them all sometime then.”

“Yes,” Joshua answered rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. Every time he did that it sent a million volts of electricity through my hand spreading all throughout my body. “Sorry Skyler.”

“It’s okay don’t worry,” I said. I turned to face him; he looked so beautiful with the sunset highlighting his face. Joshua smiled at me before kissing me on the lips as we shared a small kiss.

********

Everything became very awkward with Mingyu. What went from barely talking went to no talking at all. He wouldn’t even make eye contact with me anymore. I really missed his presence in my life and wished things could’ve been handled different. I hated that our friendship was falling apart.

“You need to talk to him again,” Wonwoo said. Wonwoo and I sat down on Joshua and mine’s balcony. We’d been working all day making sure our showcase performances were going to be perfect. Finally we called it a day and got back to the dorm at eleven. “Mingyu.”

I nodded my head as I took a sip from my water bottle looking down at the city below us. The lights were on and it made it look like the city never slept.

“You’re right,” I responded after a wall of silence washed over us. “I feel bad that he is so upset.” Mingyu didn’t seem to be smiling at all these days even around Wonwoo. Wonwoo was always able to bring out a smile from the handsome giant but it wasn’t working as of late. “Everything just .”

“Don’t think that way,” Wonwoo said nudging me lightly. I turned to look at him seeing a glint in Wonwoo’s eyes, showing that he was restless. Ever since he had medical issues he wasn’t dancing and was stuck doing nothing while we practiced the dance as thirteen of us. I could tell Wonwoo was upset that he wasn’t healing fast enough to really truly participate in the comeback. “Don’t give up.”

Wonwoo slowly got to his feet giving me a pat on the back before leaving the balcony. I heard the door to the bedroom close behind him leaving me to think about everything. He was right I would need to talk to Mingyu about everything whether he was ready or not. All of this was seriously messing with my mind and I couldn’t concentrate on our comeback one hundred percent.

I groaned leaning my head against the cold metal of the balcony looking down at the street and buildings around our dorm building. Why did everything have to be so complicated?

Eventually I got up from the balcony heading back inside. I heard the showers in the bathrooms, as everyone was getting ready for bed or late night practice in the practice rooms. I found Joshua in the living room with Jeonghan and Seungcheol focused on whatever was on the laptop.

Joshua looked up, immediately smiling as he patted the seat next to him on the couch. I happily took the seat next to him seeing them watching some video on Youtube. My hand found his as we held them together between us as I watched the video with them.

“I’m so tired,” Jeonghan said letting out a yawn. “But I want to make sure I’m ready for our comeback and showcase. It’s literally in a few days.” I smiled nodding my head before resting my hand against Joshua’s shoulder. On Monday was our showcase and the repackage album was going to be released.

“You’ve been doing fine Jeonghan,” Seungcheol said with a smile on his face. “During practice I think that everyone was doing good with their parts. I don’t think we have to worry too much.”

Finally after Very Nice was deemed ready to be performed on broadcasts we had our V app broadcast to celebrate the repackage for our album Love and Letter. The day our album was released we had our showcase which went really well and the fans seemed to love the new songs and the album. Very Nice was just another song to help get more recognition for Seventeen.

Aside from performing on music shows we had a little bit of down time here and there. That gave Joshua and I time to prepare our acoustic cover of the Chainsmoker’s Closer. After Dino had gave us the idea we’d really had our heart’s set on doing a cover of the song. Joshua was spending time with Woozi to get the accompaniment right on his guitar while I kept practicing my part.

“Okay we’re ready,” Joshua said after our practice on Saturday. We’d finished our recordings for the music shows we got to relax back at the dorm. Joshua and I had escaped off to one of the practice rooms practicing the song.

“Let’s record it,” I said smiling at Joshua. “It’s going to be great.” Joshua nodded his head before leaning in to kiss me on the lips. I found myself breaking out into an even bigger smile as Joshua continued to keep his lips on mine, moving them softly to capture my bottom lip between his lips.

“I’m addicted to your lips Skyler,” Joshua said letting out a beautiful melodious chuckle. “I want to kiss them all the time.” He placed his guitar down to wrap his arms around my neck. I looked into Joshua’s eyes as I helped him out of his chair pulling him onto my lap.

Joshua smiled resting his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes taking in his sweet scent of his strawberry shampoo mixed with coconut. It was moments like these that I felt so lucky to have gotten the chance to debut in Seventeen, but even more so that I got the chance to find such a beautiful boyfriend.

We got a little sidetracked with being all cutesy with each other. I didn’t want to let go of Joshua and he didn’t want his lips off of mine. Eventually after some more kisses and moving to lie down on the floor of the practice room we decided to find the camera to record our song cover.

“Wait your hair,” I said. Joshua stopped before the front door as I reached over to fix his hair. Kissing and stuff made our hair a little messy. “Okay good.”

Minghao agreed to film us while we did our song cover and it all turned out great. Joshua’s guitar playing was excellent as always and we sounded really great when we sang together. After we finished we looked at the camera to watch our cover.

“You guys sounded great,” Minghao said once it was over. “I think our Carats will love it.” We recorded the song cover one more time and chose the best one out of the two. After, we uploaded the video onto our computer and then onto our official Youtube page. Within a few hours it had gotten thousands of views.

Joshua and I smiled at each other as we read the comments together. All of our fans really seemed to like the cover. There were even comments asking for more covers. We were just happy that everyone seemed to like it as much as we had while singing it.

“The way you guys were looking at each other made it seem like you were a real couple,” Seokmin said as all of us watched the video together. “Look at the passion in both of your eyes.”

“I can see that too,” Seungcheol said with a nod. “It really made the performance seem more real with what the lyrics were saying. It was really great.”

I felt a nudge in my side and saw Jeonghan with a hopeful smile on his face. I knew he wanted us to tell everyone the truth but it just wasn’t the right time. Jeonghan just frowned as I shook my head. Anything to make Joshua uncomfortable was something I wanted to avoid.

“Congrats guys,” Mingyu said with an edge of hurt in his voice. The others might not have noticed it but I did. It made me feel like that we weren’t speaking to each other. I really liked Mingyu and I didn’t want to lose him as a friend. I had a lot of stuff I needed to work on aside from performing for the world to see.

So yeah it's been like half a year since I uploaded this and I apologize for that. I had some bad writer's block and didn't really know what to write. I know how I want the story to end but I don't know really how to lead up to that part. But I'm not giving up on this story by any means. I hope you enjoyed this update. As usually thank you for reading and subbing and commenting. It means a lot to me~ 

- ALSK20