Him

The moment the words slipped out of Sem’s mouth, I felt that my eyebrow had begun twitching and needed to clarify again clearly.

“What did you … just say, Sem?”

The man nervously laughed to himself as he tried to evade the burning eyes of Donghae’s and mine.

“W-Well you see, funny story!” He chuckled but cleared his throat after realising we were going to murder him. “I kind of accidentally told Hyorin that you guys rejected the offer to participate in a music video and well, haha, she made me accept it and so well, ahaha, you’re all going to be back up dancers for Kwon Boa’s comeback song! Yay!”

I closed my eyes and eased my anger down by rubbing my temples.

“Sem, I told you not to do tha—“

“—Why oppa?”

Opening my eyes again, I saw Hyorin coming from a short distance.

“You told me once that when the opportunity for us to achieve something, we should take it.” She said as she stood next to Sem, and in front of me. “Why aren’t you doing so?”

“Hyorin, without you—“

She stomped her feet and slapped my chest.

“—don’t pity me oppa!” She interrupted with a never seen before direct eye contact. “We’re all different. You guys are better at dancing while I prefer singing. Just because you star in one MV, doesn’t mean that we’re separated! I’m not weak oppa, and you have to recognize that the most!”

When her speech had finally ended, she folded her arms in a cross and puffed a breath that flicked her fringe up in the air and it returned back down.

“Now Eunhyuk oppa, you are going to do this MV shoot with Donghae oppa and Hyoyeon because you want to, okay? That’s that!”

Donghae and I nodded slowly as we, for the very first time, were surprised to discover such a stronger side of Hyorin, kind of scary too.

“Sem!”

“Y-Yes Hyorin-ah!” Sem yelped.

“You’ve made the call with the director?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Good!” She commented and turned away on her heels confidently.

“Hyorin!” I called quickly before she could walk any further. “Thanks!”

She returned my grin with a thumb up and it was at that moment, were Donghae and I happy for Hyorin, in that she was finally able to stand up for herself, an independence and strength that had been discovered.

Her

Expect the unexpected, is what we always hear from other people but really, how is that ever possible? Unless we acquire some psychic powers or some fortune-telling mind, it cannot work!

When I had arrived at the dance studio, I had thought the Monkey-boy would be touching up on his moves like usual or creating new ones even. I mean, how was I supposed to know that he would be half- and sitting on the ground as if to suggest, ‘Oh yeah, I do this every day and all.’

My jaw dropped in both shock and undeniable awe while the lotion slipped out of my hands for my body was to frozen to move. He too, looked flabbergasted while he tried to hide his body by turning back and having his arms across his bare chest.

“Y-Yah!” He yelled, flustered and his face was flaming up in red. “What are you doing?!”

“I-I …”

Not being able to say any other words, my eyes were too attentive of that one second glance at his toned, packed abs that dismissed me from my innocent thoughts.

“My face is up here, ert!”

Realizing that there’s no time to gawk, I picked up the lotion from the ground while covering my eyes with the other hand.

“D-Donghae told me to pass this lotion to you!”

“Aish …” I heard him sigh. “Don’t even take another peek then okay?! I’m going to put on my top. Not one peep! Don’t even think of opening—“

“—just do it quickly you idiot!”

So that I can stop imaging your smooth, packed chest!

“Okay, done.”

After uncovering my hand from my eyes, I was relieved that he had his top back on again and yet neither of us could no longer look at each other.

“Ahem,” He spoke. “Don’t you know how to knock? Barging in here with no manners!”

“Tch,” I scoffed. “Why were you in the first place?! You should be lucky it was me and not some of your fan girls who’ll lose respect from your !”

He then turned towards me and as he looked at me, he rested his hands on his hips.

“Okay, first of all, I was not ! Don’t make me sound like a creep when I just had my shirt off, and two! Those fan girls will love to see my honey abs any day! And three, where is Donghae?!”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“He said something about a sale at some desert house or something.” I responded. “You still didn’t answer my question as to why you were – wait, you were here waiting for Donghae and half- … with lotion … OH DEAR GOD—“

“—hey, hey, hey, don’t jump to conclusions already you idiot!” He sighed again. “The reason why I was topless was because I’m getting these massive back aches and needed Donghae to rub some ointment on it and well, since that stupid, unhelpful, selfish fish has abandoned me … could you help me?”

“Ugh,” I hesitantly answered. “I hate being nice.”

He then sat down so that his back was faced to me and removed his top off. I kneeled behind him and gulped in my saliva as his toned muscles were teasing me again.

“Stop piercing your eyes through my back and start, ert.”

“Who’s piercing their eyes?!” I scolded as I slapped his back, being fulfilled at the wince I had caused from him.

I pasted the ointment onto his skin and started rubbing the muscles, feeling fortunate at the same time that he wasn’t able to see my burning face and feel the rapid beat of my heart increasing.

“S-So!” He began. “You heard about the MV we’re participating in right?”

“Y-Yeah, Donghae intruded one of my private classes with Choi Sem to tell me and earned a good beating from him after.” I chuckled at the thought of DongDong being hit on the head by Sem. “But I heard Hyorin’s not in it …”

“Yeah, well, it’s actually thanks to her that we are actually doing it.” He stated. “You know how people always ask, ‘who would you save if your friend and mum was drowning?’ or things as to where you always would have to choose one option?”

“Yeah?”

“I learnt that we can make our own option. Why can’t we save both of the drowning people? Why does our choice have to be either ‘good’ or ‘bad’?”

“Hey, but if you think about it, can you really save two people when they’re both drowning?”

“It’s not impossible, and besides, what will I gain if I even save that one person? I’ll just keep on thinking about that person I lost, because of me.”

“Okay, good point, but what is your actual point?”

“If I accept Hyorin, then it’ll make her happy no doubt, but I don’t like her the way she does. If I reject Hyorin, our friendship will be ruined … is what I thought, but it won’t. Only when you’re able to overcome such an obstacle, can you actually test the strength of your bond and I know, that we’ll be able to remain friends.”

“Okay, I’m done, put on your shirt.”

We both stood up from our spots and he had slipped on his top again. When he had turned around to face me, I immediately enfolded my arms around his waist and let my head sit on his chest, not wanting to look at him.

“H-Hyoyeon?”

“I don’t know either,” I responded. “… I just felt like it.”

I wasn’t embarrassed to hug him, nor did I feel scared of his reaction, but I was comfortable having his warmth around my arms but what surprised me was that he welcomed my embrace by closing his arms around my shoulders and resting his chin on my head.

“I kind of get what you mean.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a/n: DOUBLE UPDATE TODAY! AUTHOR’S NOTE IS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!