His body felt warm, almost disgusting as the unnerving feeling of discomfort caged his mind. With Kim Wonshik in the room, everything had suddenly turned much harder for poor Jaehwan.

He corrected his glasses by pushing them up a tad on the bridge of his nose. His pupils shifted side to side for he was continuously avoiding everyone, very much included Wonshik with his gaze. Jaehwan still didn't know the rude boy's intentions and he didn't want to think about it either. At least not now. Instead, he tried to focus again. Breathing slowly, steadily – until his heartbeat calmed down accordingly. Only a second more or so and the silence currenly filling the room would drag over the time limit of what felt natural. The thought itself was stressful, how it it would turn toxic, awkward and put Jaehwan on edge more than what he already was.

So he sang.

His chest rose as his voice was practically forced out from his throat. Words formed rashly on his tongue, barely passing to be set free before he had to take a new breath. Maybe it had gone too long already or maybe Jaehwan was too worried about other things; because by the moment he paid attention to his voice, heard it ungratefully bounce against the mirrored walls and out to meet the judging ears – he knew he'd fail. His breath was too short, his voice unstable and his entire body language selling out his at the moment non-existing confidence.

Terrible.

He let his voice die down, lips trembling slighly as they spat the last poor phrase. It was too late to start over and try again from the beginning already and like that, Jaehwan got stuck staring blankly in front of him.

He was panting. Tiredly, repeatedly and feeling how every breath went heavily down to his lungs. Jaehwan felt his body shift, violently consider between desperate tries of begging and the tempting action to just give up and accept his failure. Because he had failed. That was for sure. He knew it from the way the others looked at him. Pitying looks, skeptical looks and showing on the faces from the other applicants; a few looks of greedy relief...

A short mumbling session took place amongst the judges, during which Jaehwan chose to be quiet. He only managed to say a short absent-minded mumble of thanks when they soon after asked him to go back to his spot by the wall.

It's over.

He hid behind foggy glasses and ruffled, sweat-damped hair as the next applicant took the stage – a cute looking teenager boy. The complete opposite from Jaehwan, that was all it took for the world to move on and for the judges faces to finally soften.

"Hello, I'm Han Sanghyuk." Was the last thing Jaehwan heard before his mind turned too clouded to even think straight.

He wanted to disappear from shame. Turn to nothing, become invisible. Please.

...

Of course it wouldn't be that easy.

All that was as far from reality as possible in this case, although Jaehwan didn't know it himself yet. Because across the room and behind the judging table, a certain pair of eyes that couldn't take their attention off him glimmered. Every now and then, they would take a peek at him, shift his way. The eyes were edgy, hiding under raven colored bangs. They were satisfied, content; but not only because Jaehwan had failed.

It was because the owner of the eyes, Kim Wonshik, had a whole other plan for the boy whose audition video had left him breathtaken one month ago.

"That's all applicants for today. Good luck and we'll contact you when we know the results."

✭

Jaehwan hesitated with his thumb hovering above the call button. He was still in the company building for he had promised to call Hakyeon as soon as the audition ended and report to him how it went. The problem here was that Jaehwan did not only not want to, it was also that he felt like he couldn't.

"What do I do..."

Although he had been right in front of his dream and even managed to get as far as to this audition – he had failed it just like that. Delivering the news would be difficult... He should have passed it, he could have. There had been a moment in there when his concentration would have allowed it. That was until... That's right. It was all until Kim Wonshik entered.

Jerk.

Giving up for the moment and with a newfound feeling of saltiness, Jaehwan slipped his phone down his yellow hoodie pocket and sighed. It didn't help much to think about it, nor did it to blame somebody else. Jaehwan just wanted to get home right now...

Just as he was about to leave and his mind had entered lighter thoughts consisiting of things like what he should eat for dinner tonight – a door opening was heard from right behind him. Giving the place he was in and how everyone else already had left the building, Jaehwan felt almost obliged to turn around... And his eyes narrowed by the sight.

Wonshik.

He impulsively turned his head back again with a quiet, almost unnoticable huff and started to walk away from the person whose footsteps he could hear unfortunately was going in the same direction as himself. Soon, he could also hear a husky, "Hey." Go through the corridor, which strangely indicated that he might actually was being followed right now.

It surprised Jaehwan that the jerk somehow felt it fitting to call out to him but it didn't really matter when he thought about it. So Jaehwan continued walking, full speed ahead.

"Hey!" It was louder this time, maybe even a bit scary. Enough so to make Jaehwan hesitate in his steps.

What does he want with me?

"Stop right there."

He obeyed. Jaehwan stopped his steps, swallowed back his nervousness and turned around. Shakingly, and probably way more scared and smaller compared to what he imagined he'd sound like, he dared ask; "W-what?"

Wonshik looked both surprised and amused at the same time as he caught up to the elder and stopped so the distance between them was no longer than an arms length.

"I have an offer for you." He spoke and Jaehwan eyed him from the bottom up in suspicion. For some reason, he seemed to remember Hakyeon's words to be careful around strangers clearly for once.

"For me?" He repeated.

"Yeah."

"Why me?

To that question, Wonshik just smiled a small smile. It was genuine, although it might have looked more like a mocking one. Something inside of him couldn't control himself near the elder, near Jaehwan. He had noticed it during their first meeting too as he had randomly spat hurtful words for the sake of attention and during the audition; his mind had bent in joy as he'd seen how self-conscious he made the other.

Wonshik was interested in Jaehwan as a person, but that he'd known for weeks now... Ever since that night when the new applicants audition-videos had arrived as a burdensome bunch of boring in his inbox.

Now, you'd think that being the next CEO in-line would save him from these kinds of duties but it was actually quite the opposite. The currently running CEO valued new applicants so dearly that he decided that they had to be watched over by trustful eyes. Wonshik's eyes, to be exact.

"Hello, I'm Lee Jaehwan, nice to meet you!" Had been spoken in dialect on the screen in front of Wonshik who had sat lazily sunk down in his couch, the laptop on his stomach; watching with uninterested eyes.

"I graduated high school about one year ago, took a year off to work and now I'm applying to a university in Seoul so that I can fulfill my dream at the same time. I really want to become a singer!"

There had been nothing special up till then. Maybe it even was a let-down, seeing how Jaehwan managed his looks and how Wonshik had grown pretty immune to the whole this-is-my-dream concept. It didn't stand out. But when Jaehwan had started singing. Oh, when he started singing.

When he sang, Wonshik had felt something move inside. A strange feeling of his emotions burning, bubbling, begging to be noticed; provoked only by the simple voice of the boy on the screen. He was enchanted by it, fascinated by the experience and how his ears meekly obeyed every twist and turn Jaehwan chose to make.

Afterwards, Wonshik felt impressed, impatient. It was that feeling of finding a great treasure no one else even knew existed. And likewise, Wonshik wanted to keep it that way. He needed to, until it was right in front of him. Until he could own it, until Jaehwan was in his possession. Because then, he was certain that he could fulfill his goals. Wonshik was certain – that he finally could go up against Jung Taekwoon.