Chapter 33 – It’s Not Too Late

Chaeyoung fumed at SMTown Café as Dahyun watched the girl scribbling away with rage.

Doyoung brought some drinks over as the bean-like girl complained, “Nothing ever goes as planned! Also, thanks for bringing the coffee over.”

“No problem, Dahyun said she did not want to deal with Mark,” Doyoung gestured to the boy cleaning the counter and commented,
“Not my fault these girls are weird!”

“Stop being so rude to girls!” Dahyun shouted back.

Doyoung knew if Jaehyun was on duty today, he would be laughing his off.

“But yeah, stop scheming,” Doyoung noted to Chaeyoung, “I don’t think it’s worth it!”

“Ya, oppa!” Chaeyoung cried, grabbing Doyoung’s hand, “You shouldn’t give up that quickly! If we work together and you focus on Jihyo and me on Sungjoon, things would work out!”
She did not notice the boy’s face going pink at her actions.

“What about Sana?” Dahyun added, done with her brief argument with Mark.

“Sungjoon oppa and her don’t even talk that much lately. They might as well have broken up,” Chaeyoung explained acting like a pro while still holding on Doyoung’s hand while he looked hella uncomfortable, “See I told you it was probably a heat of the moment relationship anyways since Sungjoon oppa has like no dating experience!”

“Okay, but can someone explain how Jihyo even got into the picture?” Dahyun asked, “RECAP please!”

“Jihyo got Sungjoon a latté months ago,” Doyoung finally squeaked, easing his way out of Chaeyoung’s grip, “Even I know that and I don’t even go to your school!”

“WHAT?” Chaeyoung roared, grabbing onto Doyoung again before he escaped into what was basically a back hug.
The boy’s face was honestly as red as a tomato at this point and Mark did not even bare to look at this embarrassing situation.

“Actually, I don’t think people at school would know that unless they worked in SMTown Café and looked at Jihyo a lot,” Dahyun said, looking at Doyoung with a boy-who-has-a-crush kind of judgmental look.

“Anyways, while I am not sure if Sungjoon likes Jihyo that way,” Doyoung said as Chaeyoung clung onto him, “I think Jihyo likes him…and I don’t think I can beat him. It’s time to move on.”

“But it’s not tooooo late, right?” Chaeyoung tutted.

“TRY ON YOUR OWN!” Doyoung flailed and Chaeyoung finally let go and grunted.

“WEAK!”

“Not weak, just mature!”

“Why are you giving up on a crush so easily?!”

“It wasn’t, I crushed on her for over year!”

“Mine was building up since primary school!”

“What is this now, a competition?!”

Dahyun just sipped her coffee and ignored the fiasco unfolding in front of her as Mark filmed it all go down behind the counter, ready to Snapchat it to all his friends.

“The legendary moment of Doyoung-hyung arguing with someone for the first time,” Mark commented, “Guess it’s never too late to break character once in a while, no?”

“We need to add this move here to make it better!”

“No, we don’t!”

That was probably the loudest I have ever heard Mina speak.
I could hear her when I was walking down the corridor.

“What is going on?”

Mina walked out of the dance practice room, annoyed.

“Momo wanted me to do this ballet move in the performance. Jihyo agreed it would look good.”

“Then do it.”

Mina spun around and whispered, “Don’t you realize even after therapy and being able to dance a bit, there is still limits to what moves I can do?”

I realized where this conversation was going, “Why don’t you just come clean to Momo…it’s not too late.”

“So…when are you going to talk to Sana,” Mina snapped back, with me surprised at her ability at savagery, “It’s not too late to fix things.”

Bambam stood behind the lighting and audio controls above the stage.
“Mic check 1, 2.”

He noticed Ten and Lisa as the next slot to use the stage for practice.
He wondered what sort of performance they would pull off.

The attractive boy and Lisa made it on stage followed by a few guys and girls Bambam did not know.
He was slightly happy it was not just those two performing. He was somewhat annoyed with this Ten guy who seemed to see through his own bravado.

He motioned to Yugyeom behind him who pressed play.
The music came on and the group started moving in sync.
Damn, they were good.
Hopefully Jihyo, Momo and Mina were up for the competition.

Suddenly the group broke into pairs for couple dances.
Bambam noticed Ten and Lisa dancing together.
Lisa had none of the awkwardness she displayed at her host family’s house and instead looked very comfortable right now dancing close to Ten.

“YAH!” Bambam grunted, surprising his tall friend beside him, “This is inappropriate! What…What if auntie saw this!? How is she even friends with my little sister Baby?!”

Yugyeom looked at Bambam confused, “Wait, you actually just found a y dance inappropriate? You, the big boy Bambam?!”

“Shut up Yugyeom! I grew up with this girl,” he pointed to the blonde girl now twerking on stage, “She’s a KID!”

“Oh, she’s…pretty,” Yugyeom commented suddenly very quietly when he noticed Yerin entering the studio with Nayeon, “Is this why you are concerned?”

“No! It’s cos she’s a kid!”

“Isn’t she your age tho? Also, Bambam, your phone is ringing,” Yugyeom nudged him.
Bambam quickly picked up the phone, “Annyeong, Sorn noona? Can I call you back later? Kind of busy right now.”

Yugyeom gaped at how nonchalantly Bambam hung up on Sorn before continuing his rant,
“And they request RED LIGHTING for the couple dance break!? What do they think we are? Some night club in Amsterdam?!”

Suddenly, Bambam noticed Ten’s hand moved onto the waist of Lisa.