As a few days passed, I saw the boys frequently for their practice. Each day improving, but each day the boys got more and more tense. No ammount of memorization of the moves could keep their mind steady. I couldnt blame them, since it was their future on the line. I did my best of keeping up encouraging words and smiles. I even made up my own fan chant for the song, but sometimes I was worried I was more distracting than helpful. 
    The boys never made it seem that way though. Always happy to see me and attacking me in big, sweaty hugs. I know they didnt want me to see how stressed they were, but I could feel it in each move they made. 
    It was about the middle of the week when Youngbin pulled me aside with the rest of the boys. He borrowed an empty meeting room so that we could all sit around a table. As we all took our seats, some of the boys started looking anxious. 
Youngbin teased the younger boys. "What? Think you're in trouble?"
"No." said Hwiyoung, but he didnt really sound that certain. 
"I just brought us all in here so we could talk about the upcoming competition and what will happen when we debut."
"What do you mean?" asked Juho, Rowoon nodding next to him with an equally confused look. 
I raised my hand slightly. "He's talking about me, guys."
Jaeyoons eyes filled with concern. "What? Whats going on with YOU after we debut?"
Dawon jumped out of his seat and slammed his hands on the table. "IS HER LIFE IN DANGER?"
Taeyang shoved him, causing him to lose his balance and fall in his chair. "Im sure thats not it."
"Its not." Youngbin said. "But I cant say the same for you, Dawon."
Dawon laughed nervously, averting his eyes.
"Shes just concerned about our friendship."
"Ah, yeah. I guess we didnt think of that." Inseong chimed. "I know that there are friends from home I rarely see, and I think they might think Ive forgotten them. I dont like it, I dont want you to think that." 
I shook my head. "No, I know. Im just being silly." My hands fidgeted in my lap. 
"Its not silly, I get it." Rowoon said. "Im with Inseong, I know those feelings too. You just dont want to grow apart."
"Yeah, I guess thats it."
Jaeyoon rose from his chair and came to me, pulling his arm around me. "We wont forget you or leave you alone."
Youngbin nodded. "Yes, I told her. Im sure she knows, but we both talked and I think it would be good for all of us to spend some time with her. So I told her if we won, we would all take her out individually." 
"Individually is too much." I said. "Nine days, each of you alone?"
"Leaving her alone with Dawon?" Juho laughed.
"Heeey!!" Dawon whined, giving puppy eyes to Juho. "Im not THAT bad."
Youngbin was quite for a bit. "Actually, its probably better if we go in groups."
"Am I really that awful?!?"
"Mostly." Taeyang smirked.
"Nine of us means nine days, thats a lot of different things we'd have to come up with." Juho pointed out. That made Dawon feel a bit better. 
"Anyways," Youngbin interupted, clearing his throat. "I figured that even though we wont know the outcome, we should make plans now, because if we do win we'll be too busy to do so later."
Everyone nodded and made noises of agreement. 
"So what are some things we could do?"
"Go shopping? Dont girls like shopping?" Rowoon called. 
"Shopping is okay I suppose, but I want you guys to have fun too." I said. 
"Maybe the beach?" Chani asked.
"Yes! I like that idea."
Youngbin nodded and wrote it down. "What about an amusement park?"
Jaeyoon and Chani both looked at each other, then looked to me, crossing their arms. I guess they didnt like amusement parks very much. 
"Id like that too." I looked to Jaeyoon and Chani. "Dont worry, Ill pick who does what."
Jaeyoon looked like he might faint if I took him. 
"I think thats good, we only need three things, and we can all go in groups of three." Youngbin said. "You can choose who goes where."
I thought for a moment. "I'll have Jaeyoon, Juho, and Taeyang take me shopping." 
Dawon looked a little disappointed while Jaeyoon couldnt help but sigh in relief. 
"I dont really care what we do." Juho smiled.
"I'll have Inseong, Hwiyoung, and Chani take me to the beach." They all nodded, looking fairly excited. "That leaves Youngbin, Dawon, and Rowoon to take me to an amusement park."
"Sounds good to me." Youngbin said. He looked around and everyone agreed. 
Well, mostly everyone. 
"I really wanted to go to the beach.." whined Dawon. 
I sighed. "I mean, I guess it wont hurt to have a team of two and a team of four, if thats okay with Youngbin." 
Dawon gave his biggest puppy eyes and Youngbin sighed. "Fine." Dawon raised his fist in victory causing the others to burst out laughing. "Remember, this only happens if we win."
The boys all looked around, Dawon and Hwiyoung both laughed nervously. The atmosphere in the room began to grow akward. I guessed that the boys probably still werent very confident in their victory, even though they acted like they were. I looked across the table at everyone's faces. Chani's eyes drilled into the table. He opened his mouth, it almost looked as though he wanted to say 'but what if we cant..'. I couldn't bear to hear that. 
"Do I have to make a sign?" I said, rising to my feet. Everyones eyes turned to me in confusion. 
"There is no way that you guys arent going to win!"
Small smiles spread around the room, the boys each looking to one another and nodding. 
"We dont want to let her down, do we?" Youngbin shouted.
A unified "No!" filled the room. 
"Then we'll just have to win." Jaeyoon said, smirking. 
They all brought their hands to the middle, Inseong grabbed my hand and placed it in with everyone else. "You too!"
"1, 2, 3, FIGHTING!!"