Chan watches their dance practice with wide eyes and Jeonghan has to remind him to blink a few times. Soonyoung almost wanted to make Chan choose between him and Woozi, he wanted to see who he favored the most. But he knew how upsetting it would have been for Chan, considering how he felt towards both of them.

Towards the end of the practice, Seungcheol stands up and said, “This was fun and all, but I have places to be.”

Jihoon looks over to Seungcheol and smirked, “You’ve been having a lot of places you need to be. Are you finally talking to her?”

Seungcheol smiles towards Jihoon, “We’ll have to talk later about it.”

“You better call me,” Jihoon tells him, “We have a lot to talk about.”

“I’m sure we do,” Seungcheol said, ruffling his own hair, “I’m probably going to be scolded by you. At least it’ll be over the phone.”

“Yeah,” Jihoon said, nodding, “I’m going easy on you, you should be glad.”

Seungcheol playfully sticks his tongue out at Jihoon before running out of the room.

“That guy is such a big kid,” Jihoon said, more to himself than anyone else, shaking his head.

“Aw,” Jeonghan said, clinging onto Jisoo, “He’s so cute when he’s in love though.”

Jisoo grins, “Since our Jihoonie is happy now, we should probably make sure Seungcheol is doing okay too.”

Jeonghan nods, “We’ll have to make sure they are good to each other.”

Turning to Jihoon, Jisoo says, “We’ll be going too then. Chan needs to be home, we promised his parents. And I want to get started on the videos Jeonghan got.”

Hearing this, everyone walks over to say bye.

“Thank you again,” Jun said, holding onto Jisoo’s shoulder, “Seriously, you’re really talented in what you do.”

“It’s all Jeonghan though,” Jisoo tells him.

Jeonghan wraps his arms around Jisoo’s middle, “You make my work shine though.”

“Can’t we stay longer?” Chan asked with a frown, “It’s not even that late.”

“It’s already 8pm,” Jeonghan turns to Chan, “Your mom wants you home, and you don’t want us on her bad side. We wouldn’t be able to see you again.”

“But,” Chan dragged out, “she knows I’m with you guys.”

Minghao has a small smile on his lips, “We’re all about to leave anyways, it is getting late.”

“Yeah,” Jihoon said, “It is getting late. You all need to leave.”

Jeonghan, still clinging onto Jisoo, pouts, “Jihoonie is throwing us out.”

“I am,” Jihoon said with a nod, “Soonyoung and I need to talk, and we can’t do that with all of you people here.”

Jun studies them with squinted eyes, “You guys sure you’re only going to talk?”

Jisoo lets out a chuckle, “What is that supposed to mean?”

Soonyoung, who had been listening to all of them, all this time, flushes red. He looks at Jun, his best friend, and said, “That’s all we’re doing. Talking, nothing more.”

“You better call me later too, then,” Jun tells him.

“Wha- why?” Soonyoung asks.

Jun frowns, tilting his head slightly, “We haven’t talked alone in a while. I like Minghao and Jihoon, but I miss it when it was just us. Plus, I have some stuff I want to talk to you too.”

Soonyoung pouts, feeling bad he’s been neglecting his best friend. He walks over to Jun and hugs him long and tight. Once he felt like he had pushed all the unsaid feelings into Jun, Soonyoung pulls back and smiles. “I’ll call you as soon as I get home.”

Jun smiles back and nod.

Minghao walks over and takes Jun’s hand. “Come on Jun. We have to get me home.”

Once everyone had left the room, Soonyoung couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous. He didn’t want to be, considering he wanted to know what made Jihoon get into music, but it seemed to be very important when Jihoon did decide to do it.

Jihoon was sitting down on the floor, gathering all his art supplies he had used that day. He didn’t pay Soonyoung any attention.

All the while, Soonyoung was lingering around, messing with dance movements he had yet to decide if they were worth using. Having already packed his small belongings he brought to the practice room, he waited on Jihoon.

Soonyoung’s train of thought, filled with dance, was interrupted when he hears his own name. He looks over to Jihoon.

“Come sit down,” Jihoon said, patting an empty area next to him.

He blinked, a little unsure of if the wanted the conversation to start. But he knew he had to go over, there was nothing to be afraid of when it came to Jihoon. Finally, with a small nod, Soonyoung makes his way over to Jihoon and sits down on the floor with him.

Jihoon moves to sit right in front of Soonyoung. Looking at Soonyoung with kind caring eyes, a small smile growing.

Soonyoung smiles back, fumbling around with his fingers. They’re interrupted when his fingers are pulled apart by Jihoon, his heart pulses loudly, and they become intertwined with Jihoon’s.

“You hold my hand a lot,” Soonyoung said, in observation.

Jihoon’s face turns blank, “Should we not hold hands then?” He started to pull their hands apart.

“No,” Soonyoung objected, holding on tighter to Jihoon’s fingers, “Don’t.”

With a smile back on his lips, Jihoon tightens their hold together too.

They’re quiet for a few minutes, just enjoying themselves, being together this close.

“So,” Jihoon said, breaking the silence, “Do you want to hear about it?”

“I do,” Soonyoung said quietly enough for Jihoon to hear.

Jihoon nods, “You know how my parents wanted me to get into music. So growing up it was all they ever trained me in, it was all I ever knew. At first I loved it, it was something I excelled at, but then it started to be a strain. My parents wanted me practicing it daily, learning instruments, learning how to compose, writing lyrics. It was all starting to be so much. I was just a child.”

Hearing Jihoon’s story, Soonyoung started rubbing small circles on Jihoon’s hand with his thumb. How could the confident boy sitting in front of him have so much trauma from his past?

After taking a small deep breath, Jihoon continued with his story. “After a point, I was just done. I didn’t want anything to do with music. Those were some dark days. I was constantly arguing with my parents, failing at music on purpose, and outright denying what they had called a god-given talent.”

At this, Soonyoung started to notice Jihoon’s shaking legs. Seeing him so unraveled and shattered, Soonyoung let go of their hold and without thinking started to rub Jihoon’s knees.

“If you want, you can take a break from talking about it,” Soonyoung said quietly, unsure of what else he could do for Jihoon.

Jihoon shook his head, “I want you to know. Because not only were they dark days, but I had a lot of dark thoughts. Seungcheol kept me alive enough for me to get through the days. I don’t know what would have happened to me if he wasn’t around. He talked me into taking different classes to try out new things, and I decided on a art class. At first I , I didn’t know anything about how to draw. Nothing I did was worth mentioning.”

After noticing Jihoon calm down, Soonyoung went back to holding onto Jihoon’s hand.

“There were many days when I considered going back to doing music, something I was good at. But I knew I would have hated myself everyday doing something I didn’t enjoy. So I kept going, kept drawing, kept painting, kept learning everything about art. And like every year, there was an upcoming art show. Everyone was to do one piece, and I thought long and hard about it before I ended up going with painting the morning when I decided to change my whole life.”

Soonyoung felt his heart thump loudly, “The one I saw?”

Jihoon nodded with a small smile, “The one you saw and were so entranced with. Everyone around me had already started to tell me how good I had gotten, but I didn’t quite believe them. Seungcheol knew of my past, and Jeonghan and Jisoo figured out I had it hard. I felt like whatever they were saying was just to pacify me. All their kind words were out of pity. I know how wrong it was of me to think of it like this, but I was still struggling.”

“So when you came along and stood staring at my picture, you confused me to no end. Did you like it, did you hate it? I was so tempted to come up to you and to shove you away from my painting. But then Jun came around and you claimed my painting to be pretty.”

With a smile on his face, Soonyoung said, “It was. The most beautiful morning sky, a sky I wouldn’t mind waking up to everyday. That’s what I was actually thinking when I was staring at it.”

“If you want, I can paint a bigger scale of it in your dance studio,” Jihoon said, looking at Soonyoung with curiosity.

Before he could say anything, Soonyoung started to furiously nod his head.

Jihoon chuckled, “Okay, okay. Stop, before you lose your head.”

Soonyoung scoots closer to Jihoon as he stops nodding, “I would love anything you paint in our dance studio.”

“I like the sound of that,” Jihoon said with a growing smile, “Our studio.”

“Cause it will be ours,” Soonyoung said in confirmation, “Us together.”

They smiled at each other in the moment of silence, then Soonyoung couldn’t help it. He wanted to hug Jihoon, so that’s what he did, letting go of Jihoon’s hand he leans over to wrap him up in a hug.

“What’s this for?” Jihoon muffled out.

“I just wanted to,” Soonyoung tells him, “Plus, I wanted to say thank you for making it this far, for meeting me, and for never giving up. Thank you.”

Soonyoung’s heart and mind was swelling up with so many emotions for the boy in his arms. As crazy as everything had been leading up to this point in their lives, they were meant to have met each other and be in each other’s lives. Soonyoung wanted to believe this, knowing he wouldn’t have been any happier if he didn’t have Jihoon around.

Pulling away from Jihoon, Soonyoung asked, “Why did you go back to making music?”

Jihoon shrugged, “I found out you like to dance. I thought if you weren’t going to notice me for my art again, you might notice me for my music. I wanted to give you songs to dance to. For selfish reasons, I wanted to be part of your life no matter how small it was. But I didn’t want my parents knowing, so I made up Woozi and wore masks.”

“Even then, when I wanted to make you music, I was scared of falling back into my old self. I was scared I was going to give up art and continue with music when I knew it was going to be easier. So that’s why I painted my masks.”

Pulling Jihoon to him, Soonyoung wanted to hold onto Jihoon and never let go.

Jihoon gasped at the movement, now almost sitting in Soonyoung’s lap. “Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung nuzzled into Jihoon’s neck, “You’ve done so much for me, even when I didn’t know you yet. I feel like I don’t deserve all this attention from you at all.”

Jihoon loosened Soonyoung’s hold far enough to look at Soonyoung, “It’s not about what we deserve, silly. It’s about our happiness. And we make each other happy. Don’t I make you happy, or do I have to keep trying?”

Soonyoung shook his head, tightening his hold on Jihoon’s waist, “You’re good the way you are. Don’t change anymore for me. I’m happy with you”

“You know I would run around the world twice for you, right?” Jihoon said, grinning.

“Don’t you dare,” Soonyoung pouted, “You have to stay beside me at all times.”

“Ahhh,” Jihoon nodded, “That sounds good too.”

“Yeah,” Soonyoung said, snuggling into Jihoon.

“Soonyoung-ah,” Jihoon said with a chuckle, “It’s not that I don’t mind, but do you think you’re ever going to let me go?”

“No,” Soonyoung tells him, rubbing his face into Jihoon.

Jihoon couldn’t help but laugh, especially when Soonyoung starts tickling him.

Jun: Are you home yet?

Soonyoung gasps as he realized he was supposed to have called Jun when he arrived home. He was still very overcome with happiness after his talk with Jihoon. Soonyoung had literally spent half an hour laying in bed giggling about their whole conversation. Then he wanted to go and rewatch Woozi. It was in the middle of watching a video when he received Jun’s text.

Exiting out of Youtube, Soonyoung called Jun right away.

“Jun,” Soonyoung said as soon as his friend picked up.

Jun could be heard sighing before saying, “Finally. How was your talk with Jihoon?”

Soonyoung smiled at the mention of Jihoon, “Good. Everything is pretty much explained now.”

“That’s good to hear,” Jun tells him.

“Yeah,” Soonyoung replied, “Everything in life is pretty good right now.”

“You know I’m super glad for you right?” Jun said.

“Thank you, Junnie,” Soonyoung said, holding in his giggles.

“There is something I wanted to tell you though,” Jun continued, more serious now.

Soonyoung coughed away the giggles and become more serious too, “Wha-what is it?”

Jun tells him, “Minghao and I have been talking a lot about our future. And I know we should have this conversation face to face, but you were busy with Jihoon. So I just wanted to let you know so you could think about it. We, Minghao and I, we want to join you at your dance studio. If you want us there.”

Without even having to think about it, Soonyoung blurted out, “Yes!”

He had so many daydreams of the three of them teaching people to dance. They would stay up way too late, making dance routines, laughing together, just being happy as they always were. Soonyoung wouldn’t of had it any other way.

Jun scoffs at the fast reply, “Good. Now you don’t have to work so much. Minghao and I will help buy the building too. You need to concentrate in school to get into a good college.”

“Are you sure?” Soonyoung asked with furrowed brows, “I don’t want you guys to worry about losing money that way.”

“Soonyoung-ah,” Jun scolded, “Will you stop already. We want to do this with you. If we’re going to do it, we’ve already decided to go all in. We don’t mind Jihoon taking the top floor, we honestly like Jihoon around. You’re our best friend, we want to be happy with you.”

Soonyoung smiles, “Okay. This is going to be so great. You, Minghao, me, Jihoon, and all his clinging friends. I can’t wait.”

Jun laughs, “I can’t wait too.”

Time flies when Soonyoung is busy everyday. Jihoon has to remind him to relax and do nothing. But even that doesn’t last long when Soonyoung is antsy with ideas running around his mind. He rather be at the dance studio dancing away or planning on filming another video.

In a flash of an eye, school was already going to begin for the year. With Jihoon, and his friends alongside him, Soonyoung was ready for the next couple of months. They were going to enjoy every last moment in their youthful high school days, working up to their college life.

Soonyoung had a surprise event planned for Jihoon. He was sure they weren’t going to be getting much homework on their first day back, so he had a date planned. Making sure Jihoon was going to meet him after school, Soonyoung couldn’t wait for the afternoon to come.

Happily skipping around the familiar school hallways, Soonyoung turned the corner to hopefully find Jihoon waiting for him. But the person sitting by the outdoor bench wasn’t Jihoon.

It was Seokmin.