It was after lunch when Woojin walked back into the recording place with some Brand New Music staff. He immediately walked to where the 'Never' team were practicing, and bowed for causing trouble.

Jinri brightened up at seeing him being able to walk by himself, but soon frowned as she saw an eye patch covering his left eye. He looked greatly uncomfortable as well, and it worried him.

He met eyes with Jinri in the process of bowing and coming up again, but broke his eye contact with her as soon as possible and covered his left eye awkwardly.

Jinri on the other hand, began to smile lightly at him as they met each other's eyes, but was disappointed to see him avoid eye contact with her. It was odd because usually, he kept his eye contacts for a few seconds before looking away in the past.

Soon, the 'Never' team got back to practicing with its full members, and Jinri continued to correct little things and made everything perfect. Her mind was in confusion as it seemed like Woojin had been trying to avoid her ever since he came today, and wondered if she made any mistakes yesterday. She however decided that she needed to be a professional right now and threw her worries away, concentrating more on the dance for now.

It was an hour before the start of the performances, and everyone was receiving make up and getting ready to show their best side to the audience. Jinri decided to take some rest as she had not stopped ever since the morning, so she walked towards the 'Never' waiting room, expecting it to be empty as all trainees were supposed to be receiving make up right now.

She opened the door, only to see a familiar male looking down on the ground with his back towards her.

"Woojin..? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be getting your make up done." she started the conversation with uncertainty in her voice.

Woojin who turned around immediately at the hearing of Jinri's voice soon turned halfway around again, making sure that she could only see the right side of his face. The truth was, he didn't want to show his face to Jinri. Or at least the eye patch side. He knew that his face had swollen up and his eye patch was making him less attractive (or so he thought), so he didn't want to show this side of him to his crush.

"Ahh... I already got my make up done.. Since I have an eye patch, there was no need for work on my left eye so it ended quickly." he replied, hoping that she wouldn't come any closer and see his face.

"Oh I see... Are you okay? I heard that you were diagnosed with shingles. It must hurt a lot. I really have great respect towards you for still performing tonight. I'm sure you'll do well!" she said, slightly happy that she managed to start a conversation.

"Oh, thank you..." was the only thing that came out of Woojin's mouth as all of his concentration was only on if Jinri would look at his face or not.

Jinri on the other hand wondered if she was bothering him with too many things, after all, he was sick and in pain, and didn't seem like he wanted to talk, ot at least with her.

"I'm sorry I think I'm disturbing you. You should probably get some rest before the recording starts, right? I think I'll go now, sorry." she quietly mumbled and was about to walk towards the door, when he called her.

"Wait! I didn't mean to sound tired to you, I'm really okay. I'm thankful that you're talking to me... It's just.. I didn't want you to see my face since I have an eye patch and it's swollen and all... You know.. my looks weren't even that great in the first place, but it makes me look even more less attractive..." he managed to get his thoughts out, but immediately looked down with embarrassment.

"No! Your looks are great, with or without the eyepatch. I'm being honest here! You're really handsome and you're even more handsome on stage. You stand out the most, really. I mean, yeah... everyone's good looking! Aren't they? Hahah.." she replied with rosy cheeks, but realised how much she was complimenting him and quickly shut by complimenting everybody else as well.

"Ahh, thank you. I think you're just nice though, hahaha you can really make anyone and everyone feel better about themselves.." Woojin said with slight disappointment that Jinri had started off with just him, but ended off with everybody else as well.

"No, that's not what I meant! You are really handsome Woojin... oppa.. And you can rap and dance really well, and you even have a great personality and a great voice and you in general is just really great and- ." Jinri noticed the disappointment in Woojin's voice so she began to express her real feelings towards him, but facepalmed herself when she once again realised what she was doing.

Jinri didn't have the courage to look back up at her crush, when she heard a chuckle. She looked up, to see Woojin with cheeks as rosy as hers, smiling brightly to himself.

"It's the first time you've ever called me oppa in front of me haha. And I never knew you had these feelings for me, huh." he teased, making her blush hard.

Woojin expected Jinri to tease back or deny her feelings and make jokes, but was surprised to see her blushing hard and looking down at the ground. Her unexpected gesture made him want to express himself and see if she felt the same way as him.

"Jinri.. I'm going to say something that might shock you. I don't want to hear a reply now, but I just want to get this out of my mind. I liked you ever since last year. When I first saw you on the first episode of Produce 101 Season 1. Since then, I have never looked at another girl. You probably thought that I didn't like you or something because I was always awkward or cold around you, but it was just because of my personality. I didn't have the courage to approach you. It's really okay for me to not hear a reply right now, but I just wanted to tell you how I feel. Is that okay?" Woojin spoke carefully, watching every reaction of Jinri as he showed his feelings to her.

Jinri could only feel her cheeks getting redder and redder, if that was even possible. She felt like her face was going to burst from the hotness, and couldn't believe that her crush had the same feelings as her. Her brain began to go blank and she couldn't find any words to say back to him.

"I... I like you too, Woojin... oppa... I thought you uh, already knew about me liking you from Jinyoung.. I thought so maybe you wanted to avoid me.. I like you too..." she stumbled with her words, but still managed to confess back to him.

Woojin couldn't contain his happiness as he immediately approached Jinri until they were only a few centimetres apart, and looked at her right in the face.

"Really? You really do? Not just because I confessed my feelings to you? Not because you feel sorry for me?" he bombarded her with questions, making her giggle and nod, once again confirming her feelings.

He stared at her with excitement, only to realise how close they were. He took a step back to give her some space and awkwardly looked away, feeling embarrassed at how he acted just then.

"So... you'll do well on the stage, right? I'll be looking forward to it." Jinri broke the silence which had taken place after the confessions.

"Of course, I don't even feel pain anymore. I'll make sure that I perform your choreography well on stage. Thank you so much, Jinri. Really, thank you." he replied, and the two smiled at each other.

Soon, Daehwi and Guanlin walked into the waiting room after getting their make ups done, and soon caught onto the pink mood which was lingering in the room.

"Hmm so hyung and noona, I think we have interrupted something, am I right? We are so so sorry, how dumb of us. But I guess we can't leave the waiting room anymore because we already got our make ups done. Maybe you two can continue your conversation now? We promise we won't cut into your talks." Daehwi teased, making Woojin and Jinri blush again.

Woojin punched Daehwi on the arm only to get a whine from Daehwi, and he began to complain to Jinri as she just laughed at the cute dongaseng.

"But seriously noona and hyung, although I'm not 100% sure on what happened in the waiting room just then, I'm happy for you both. You guys look so happy right now, and this is what I want to see the most. I'll always cheer you guys on no matter what!" Daehwi said more seriously, and Guanlin agreed by his side, nodding after every single sentence.

"Thanks kids." Woojin said with embarrassment as Jinri smiled shyly.

It was only five minutes before the 'Never' performance now, and all seven members of the team had nervous looks on their faces. Even Minhyun and Jonghyun who were familiar with standing up on the stage in front of many audiences couldn't hide their stoned faces.

"Alright 'Never' team, be prepared to get up on stage any time now! Fix your clothes and drink water if needed." a staff said, making everyone panic even more.

Jinri walked towards Woojin who was by standing in the corner, trying to fix his bowtie, but failing to do so with an eye patch covering one eye.

"Here, let me help," she offered, and fixed the tie for him carefully. After finishing, she took a step back and looked at Woojin from head to toe. She knew that he was always handsome, but he looked even more handsome today. It made her heart flutter once more.

"I think you're going to drill a hole in me with those looks Jinri.. I mean I don't mind but it's slightly embarrassing you know." Woojin joked, making Jinri blush once more.

"I wasn't staring at you that deeply... Anyway, I'm expecting a good stage from you! I know that you can do it even with an eye patch. You've tried your best for a long time so I'm sure your results will be great. And remember that you don't look ugly! You're nowhere near ugly so have some confidence in you. You can do it!" she said, making Woojin smile.

"Thanks so much. I'll do well for you." he replied.

"Okay, time to go up on stage now!" the staff said.

Woojin seemed like he was in a dilemma for a moment, but soon stepped towards Jinri, gave her a small hug and said, "You better only watch me on stage. If you watch any other hyungs or dongsaengs I might get jealous. I'll do well just for you Bae Jinri."

Jinri blushed, nodded and sent him off to go on stage. Once Woojin entered the stage, Jinri immediately went on the ground out of embarrassment and happiness.

Their performance was perfect as she expected, and Woojin did exceptionally well even with an eye patch. She was so proud and thankful to the team for making her choreography look so good on stage.

After the end of recording for the concept evaluation performances, Jinri greeted all the trainers, staff and trainees including Woojin and Jinyoung, and left to go to her own dorm for tomorrow's schedules. She was so happy with the improvement in her and Woojin's relationship, and couldn't look forward to meeting him again.

+ Shout out to @Yingggzzz for the upvote! Thank you so much😃