Gyeong's intense glare penetrated straight through to my heart. She meant well, she really did. But why can't I keep up? I want to practice more, but there wasn't any energy left in my body. I was a drained battery that could only disappoint her.

Only by sheer determination was I able to stand up on both feet. "Please, let me eat something first and I promise I'll practice more," I bargained.

"Stop the act. If you were really starving, you'd have passed out by now. Start again at the beginning," she said, turning on Exo's Wolf.

"Excuse me,"

We both looked up to see a young man standing at the room's entrance. His soft features immediately triggered my memory. I'd been forgetting a lot of things lately, but his face was kept in a secret stash of hidden memories that my mind refused to discard. It was a face that held the emotions of the universe when the young man danced; the emotions that I needed to replicate before my debut. They held the power that could captivate the hearts of millions; the kind that will put me on top.

"Is there something you need, Taeyong-ssi?" Gyeong asked, matching his gaze. But he was unafraid and refused to back down.

"Your rookie here promised to record a song with me," he said noncholantly.

Record a song? Why was he helping me? Thousands of questions danced across my mind, but I threw them all away just as quickly as they had come. There wasn't any time to do anything but play along.

"And why would Kiara do that?" Gyeong asked, turning to face me.

"Actually, Taeyong-ssi suggested it. Like you always say, I'm the best rookie, so I guess he wants to see exactly how good I am," I said mockingly, using her words against her.

Gyeong doesn't completely buy it, eyeing each of us warily for far too long. "You have one hour," she finally says, leaving the room.

I once again collapsed in a heap onto the floor, simply taking a moment to just breathe. The guy, Taeyong, watched me silently, unmoving from his position near the door. It was no different. I am still just an animal being watched from her cage; although this time, there was a different spectator.

"Do you have asthma?" he finally asked. I shook my head, only at that moment realizing I'd been frantically taking large gulps of air as my heart beat sped up to an unhealthy rate. Just like before.

"It's nothing," I said, afraid to meet his eyes. Feeling my sensitivity to the topic, he held back pressing questions.

"You can go. I need to take a nap," I mutter, already laying myself on the floor. Just as he turned away, a loud, tedious noise errupts from my stomach.

"How about this. I'll get something for us to eat first, then you can take your nap," he suggests. I nodded, too embarrased to do anything else.

Taeyong's pov:

Kiara nodded silently, watching me as I left. Her gaze was so full of mixed emotions; but gratefulness, curiosity, sorrow, and even envy screamed the loudest. Envy of what, I couldn't imagine. The girl had everything. 

"Hyung!"

My attention turned to see a very excited Mark rushing towards me. The other members trailed behind, making playful remarks which caused my cheeks to flush an unattractive color.

"How'd it go?" Johnny asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"It's not like that. I was just going to get some food," I said, but Jaehyun didn't buy it.

"Getting food? Isn't this an indirect date? You can't hide anything from us Tae~" he laughed. At this, Mark grabbed my arm and screamed, "No!! We haven't even debuted yet, you can't think about that stuff!"

"What kind of things are you thinking of? I'm just getting her food because she's hungry," I said, throwing him a dirty look. "Anyways...did you guys buy extra?" I gestured to the takeout Doyoung was holding.

"Ah, yeah. We thought you probably didn't eat yet, so we ordered you some. But since there's only one...how about you and Kiara-ssi share it?" Doyoung said, making kissy faced. And here I thought he was the mature one.

In the end I yielded and allowed them to deliver the food to her. But in the midst of all the noise the members were making, it took us awhile to realize that Kiara was gone.