Lilly.

I sat at my desk at work, editing some pictures when I received a call from Eva.

"What's up?" I asked after picking up quickly, a bit engrossed in my work. 

"Lilly!" She replied, ecstatic for some reason, "You have to get here soon."

I was confused, "Where...? Why, and right now?"

"Well, Maria and I are hanging out with the guys right now, they actually invited us to the JYP building," Eva began explaining, "And apparently they're going to show the practice dance to "Home Run", their new song!"

"But... Home Run already has two dance practices though," I answered her curtly. What is she even talking about?

"Yeah, it does, but they're gonna make a new practice session today, and since they know that you're a bigger fan of them than us two anyway, they told me to call you here and have you watch them, live!"

Wow, that's certainly an honor. And they all seem happy too... should I go...? I don't really know. I have my work and all that.

"But I have my work..." I mumbled, a bit hesitant.

She seemed impatient, "Oh come on! Today's a national holiday and you do all your work perfectly anyway! Get here quickly or they're saying they won't talk to you!" At this she hung up. 

I sighed. This leaves me with no choice. I honestly don't know why I get so hesitant at certain things like I did, but having been invited like this is honestly great. I guess I will go. I continued on my work and by 3.30, I was done with everything and requested permission to leave. 

I took a taxi to the JYP building and gasped at how tall it was, it towered over most buildings in the area, with shiny glass covering most of it. I clenched my bag tightly, realising that I had never actually been here before, and that this place harbored so many successful people in its time. I smoothed out my black and white striped shirt and patted down the deep pink skirt I was wearing. I was kinda nervous, but stepped inside and breathed out in relief immediately. Inside the lobby stood Maria, Mark and Bambam, talking amongst each other, and spotted me quickly, calling me to them. 

"Hey, Lilly!" Maria hugged me happily, and Mark, smiling, asked, "What took you so long?"

"We were almost gonna cancel the practice because of you, you know," Bambam stated sneakily. 

"I was caught up in work a bit," I shyly replied, "Sorry about the wait."

"We were just kidding," Mark laughed, then began to lead us down a hallway, then to the basement. The basement was quite brightly lit and looked pretty and classy just like the rest of the building. There were lots of doors, and Mark led us into one where Eva and the rest of Got7 were lounging, and talking amongst each other. Jackson and Yugyeom were deeply engrossed in a game of Jenga though. As for Youngjae... he wasn't in the room...? Strange.

"She's here!" Eva stood up and cheered, surprising and confusing me. 

"Now then, shall we start, guys?" Junior looked around at everyone, "Since we were all waiting for Lilly."

"Wait a second," I raised my hands up quickly, still wanting to clear up my doubts, "Why am I getting such VIP treatment? I mean, it's nice and all, but if feels kind of weird..."

Eva and Maria both sprung on me as I said that, Eva pulling my ear and Maria explaining to the boys,"Don't mind her, she's always paranoid like this, even though she loves hiding it," she added mischievously.

I threw her a glare, "I do not!" 

Everyone laughed at that, and JB stood up, and told me calmly, "You're already such a nice friend to us, and we heard that you're a bigger fan of ours than these two anyway," the leader pointed to Maria and Eva in turn, making them cross their faces at him, before continuing, "So we'd rather someone supportive like you help us build our self esteem a little by watching us practice. Or would you not want that?"

I see. This is actually such a nice thing to say, I suddenly felt all happy inside as I replied quickly, "It's not like that at all! I'd love to see you guys practice, this is great!" 

With that, JB smiled and led us all into a room that was directly opposite to the room everyone was sitting in just now. It was a huge, mostly empty practice room with a light wooden floor and sofas lining the sides, along with a synthesizer machine and other props and materials. Large mirrors lined two complete walls too. 

Before I could sit down, Junior quickly motioned to me, "Lilly, can you please go call Youngjae? He's in the practice room at the end of the hallway, okay?" 

I hesitated a little bit, thinking about why he asked me alone, when over five other people here could also do the job, but was cut short as Maria and Eva giggled and pushed me roughly out of the door, yelling at me to "go already". 

This is kind of strange behaviour from everyone today. I mean, why are they suddenly so energetic and putting me in such a bright spotlight? Not that I mind or anything, but a strangeness is still there. 

Nevertheless, I brushed it off and walked to the end of the hallway. 

Inside the room, I stopped to see Youngjae sitting at a grand piano, playing.

His eyes were closed as he himself gently swayed to the melody he was creating; he immersed himself into the song, it was as if he wanted to be part of it himself or something. The music was so peaceful and simple that rather than bringing Youngjae for practice, I found myself leaning against the wall and listening to the concord, forgetting about the world for a moment. 

It seemed like it was ending after about two minutes, since the notes started to become slower. I opened my eyes, and watched quietly as Youngjae ended the song, opened his eyes, and looked up, eyes finally meeting mine and I smiled. 

"Hi, Youngjae," I greeted him happily -- the music had upped my mood a notch too, "That was beautiful."

He got up and walked toward me, face lighting up in a bright grin, "Thanks!" With this, his ears turned red as he added, "I didn't know that someone was listening in..." 

I laughed his bashfulness off by changing the subject quickly, "The guys told me to bring you to them in the next practice room."

"Oh, really?" He asked, "Sure, let's go then. Don't wanna keep them waiting."

I led the way to the door, Youngjae quickly following behind, and opened it.

Except the fact that it didn't open.

The door wasn't opening. Why was the door not opening? What's going on here...? I came in here myself and closed the door behind me, surely I didn't lock it for if I did, we could open it ourselves. Did someone lock us in here? Was the door stuck in the door frame, what the hell?! 

I didn't hear Youngjae calling out to me in my thoughts until he did in a slightly louder voice, "Lilly! What's wrong? Why aren't you opening the door?" 

"It's locked," I whispered.

"Huh?" Youngjae asked quietly; he seemed to be in disbelief as he quickly told me to move over and himself tried to open it, but to no avail. He even put his foot up and pulled, and I chuckled before sighing. 

"Wonder how that happened..." 

"Oh, by the way, why were the guys asking for me in the first place, Lilly?"

Oh, I hadn't told him, had I, "Well, since you were going to film a new practice for Home Run, they told me to come get you and all that."

Youngjae's expression progressively got more and more confused as I said that, before he finally asked, "Wait a second, what Home Run practice?"

I tried elaborating it to him, "The guys called me here specifically to show them your new practice for your single, Home Run, right... they were all pumped and ready to go, and then they all pushed me out to call you to the next room..."

"But, Lilly," Youngjae cut, "We have no practice scheduled for today."

Suddenly it all made sense. This was, without a doubt, Eva's planning. And it all resulted from that one conversation I had with her when I accidentally let it slip that I might have a crush. Damn that two faced girl. She must have brought the rest of the bunch of idiots to her side as well and planned such a godforsaken maneuver. 

I cannot believe that they actually locked me in here, with Youngjae. The person I actually have a crush on. A love life is literally one of the last things I want right now! 

Oh my God. There's going to be death tonight. 

Youngjae seemed to be curious about me looking all pensive and whatnot, for he went and asked, "Are you okay...? Suddenly, your face is red." 

I covered my cheeks with my hands and pulled, "Really?? I didn't even notice" Trying to laugh it off, I directed my attention to my phone and let out a frustrated sigh when I saw the signal bars empty. Youngjae noticed and added, "Since this is the basement, there's no phone signals and--"

"No Wi-Fi either?! What the hell!" I completed for him, anger issues bursting forth. He laughed a bit, then sobered up and asked, to seemingly no one in particular, "So what now?"

Now I actually felt self consciousness and my own self esteem beginning to climb up and go down quick as hell. My emotions and feelings were all over the place, and I hated it. 

Youngjae suddenly suggested, "Let's go wait back in the piano room, surely someone will come along and open it for us, right?" And led me back to the large expanse of the room and stood himself next to a large mirror, not saying a word but looking around here and there, while I myself paced around the room, looking deep into my phone, hoping desperately for it to catch a signal, and we spent two minutes just like that.

Then... things took a rude turn. 

The lights all went out. A blackout occurred. 

Now, I won't lie. I'm not the bravest person in the world. I might act composed and powerful and unconcerned, but small things like insects and heights and blackouts scare me. And that too, terribly. Because of that, I'm paranoid and always keep a flashlight by me, or something to help. 

This time, i had nothing. Absolutely nothing. But then, my brain recognized the presence of another human being that actually causes me a lot of comfort right in the room with me. I could go to him as to not lose my . 

As soon as the lights out, i started shaking and stuttering, waving my hands around wildly, groping for something to hold in this dark. I felt so scared, and through my desperate grabbing at empty air, I started muttering and gasping, "Ah- Y-Youngjae, where... where are y-you? Y-Youngjae!" 

I didn't know how far I had walked until I actually tripped forward, and braving myself for the smack to the ground, I was greeted, instead, by Youngjae's arms supporting me strongly as I fumbled with my legs and my mouth, trying to gain a sense of reality. 

Youngjae was muttering, "Hey, it's okay, you're not alone over here; I'm right here okay," he tried his best to reassure me, grasping onto my hands as I stood up, now muttering a constant, kind of annoying row of apologies for tripping like the klutz I am. I swear to god I'm going to end myself like this. 

I stood up, now reassured thanks to someone actually being here with me in the dark, but still couldn't get over my stupid fear and ended up holding onto Youngjae's wrist tightly, completely forgetting our absolutely pointless closeness right now, "Please let me hold on, I'm terrified here."

Youngjae laughed, nervously at first (why does he sound so nervous?) but quickly turned it into a mocking laugh, seemingly mocking my pathetic fear of the dark, that escalated to the point of him losing his in the most irritating yet... cute... ways possible, trying to speak out my name or mock me and my stupidity by laughing it off and I finally told him to cut it out by smacking him on the back and crying out, "Cut it out already! How rude even are you! I'm genuinely afraid and shaking here, you know! Look at you, mocking the hell out of me. I didn't even make half the fun of you as you are right now when you had a score of 200 in "League of Legends" and I had triple of that!! Ugh!"

He chuckled and finally stopped laughing, arguing with me over the score and giving excuses. 

"Let's sit, Lilly," Youngjae offered, and we slid down to the floor, backs against the huge mirrors.

We sat silently for a while, with me grasping his wrist tightly, thinking about this predicament and getting progressively redder in the face, while Youngjae said nothing and just looked around, trying to maintain his vision in this dark, when suddenly he whipped out his phone, lighting up his face and giving me some relief. Youngjae seemed happy as he explained, "It doesn't really matter if we don't have Wi-Fi, right? At least we have our phone galleries and music players!" 

Ah, that's certainly true, isn't it... I was so caught up in my fear that I completely forgot I had a godforsaken phone in my hand. How... stupid.

Youngjae's excitement seemed to have reached a peak when he turned to me and practically pushed his phone into my face, and announced happily, "I can show you my nephew and niece and my family too!" 

The rest of our conversation passed by in a blur, but one that became very precious to me. Youngjae told me about his family, he showed me countless pictures and even videos of his only nephew and niece, talking away about the two, about how they played, how they loved him, how much he loves them and constantly buys them gifts and plays the silliest of games with them. Then he switched to his older sister and mother. There was something special seeing Youngjae talk about sister and mother. It was like his eyes sparked and his face lit up so involuntarily, and it was incredible. Without hesitating for even a bit, Youngjae started narrating stories and events of what his family was like before his debut and during his school life, and it was his energy that me into his stories and soon I had forgotten about the dark and was just as happy as he was at the moment. 

Youngjae also told me a bit more about what he normally couldn't share on chats with me. Little things like how much he hated cucumber, his dog, Coco, his fondness for sweet things, his favourite singers, and the like. I got introduced to songs by Elliot Yamin and Javier, Youngjae's role model singers, among other things. He told me about how grateful he was for being part of Got7, and how much he loved all the members and all the fans worldwide. 

Youngjae is such a sensitive, genuinely grateful and sincere person that I actually found myself hesitating to accept the reality at first, due to my long owned trust issues with people. But this conversation cemented his simple genuinity in my mind. This kind of honest and sincere person deserved the trust and love he had. And I myself decided to try my best to support him... As much as I could without overstepping boundaries at least. 

"Ah!" It was as if Youngjae crashed into some foreign reality, "I'm so sorry, I kept babbling about myself and didn't even let you speak -- it's just that I get so caught up in myself sometimes-"

I cut him short from speaking such stupid things by grasping his wrist even tighter than before and giving him a stern look, before softening and gently letting him know, "I didn't mind at all. I love that you're actually this sincere and caring a person, Youngjae. You put on kind of an aloof air around the others, don't you?" I giggled a little at that.

"I guess," Youngjae scratched his cheek, grinning. Just as he said that though, the doors to the room actually opened wide and there stood two staff members, looking confused and pointing two bright flashlights at our faces. They ushered us out quickly, as if we ourselves weren't getting the hell out quick enough. 

Youngjae led me up to the first floor and out the building, both of us wanting to see light again. It was early evening as we stepped out, and the streets were empty. As the both of us walked back to my apartment at my suggestion that the rest of the guys might be there, we learned from a few people on the street that the main electricity supplier to Seoul city had a blown transformer and fire in the premises, leading to heavy repairing and blackout on a major scale. Well, nothing you could do about that. 

We reached the apartment safely and easily, and as I closed the door behind me, Youngjae going first, I asked, head down and eyes closed, "Who's going to die today?" 

Eva and Maria's cheer for me returning turned down quickly and six other nervously happy faces suddenly looked horrified.