Jinyoung wishes he could blame the heat, but the AC is blasting and everybody else in the room has goosebumps from the cold.

Still, his palms are sweating. Every couple of seconds he has to wipe them against his jeans to keep dry. The shirt sticking to his back is a different story altogether though. He’s sitting on a chair that is catty-corner to a couch in the Inkigayo waiting room. And seated on the couch is none other than APink’s Bomi.

Also known as the girl of his dreams.

She looks elegant and pretty in an off-shoulder pale pink dress with ruffles on the skirt. Her hair is bobbed and smooth, the edges stop just above her slender shoulders. The exposed skin is lightly freckled, which Jinyoung thinks is cute. She’s so close to him that if he moved his knee a little bit, it might skim her leg, so he sits as still and tense as a captured soldier in the enemy’s interrogation room.

What’s worse is that Bomi hasn’t stopped smiling since she came in. When she smiles, her eyes scrunch up into half moons lined by soft, dark lashes, and the corners of pull up and expose her dainty teeth. She looks so heartbreakingly beautiful that Jinyoung can’t help but feel embarrassed just looking at her.

“Sorry, I’m a little nervous,” Bomi says diplomatically. “I’ve done this before, but it’s been a while. I might miss a cue or two.”

“Oh… just.. It’s okay…,” Jinyoung says, stammering out a half-formed reply. He smiles and laughs nervously. As tense and still as he is, on the inside, it feels as if his body is rushing in every direction at once. Bomi stares at him expectantly, but seeing that he doesn’t seem to have anything else to say, she just laughs. 

Say something, idiot, he thinks to himself. His long-time crush is just an arm’s reach away and he can’t manage to say two words to her. Instead, he sits there, sweating through his clothes. His heart is beating so fast, he feels like it’s trying to run away from him.

Bomi starts tapping a foot, and Jinyoung inwardly panics. Oh god, he thinks, she’s bored. I should say something to her.

“Usually, Jisoo and Doyoung would… be here by now,” Jinyoung says. Bomi looks at him and smiles again.

“Oh, right,” she says, looking up from her script. “I’m a little disappointed I won’t get to meet Doyoung today. NCT’s latest comeback looks impressive. I guess it just means I’ll have to come back.”

“Oh… yeah, yes… I guess so,” Jinyoung says. He rubs his palms against his jeans, wondering where on God’s green earth Jisoo could be. She’s the more playful, outgoing one in the Inkigayo bunch. If she were here, she’d know what to do to keep Bomi entertained and maybe he wouldn’t be sitting here looking like a damned fool in front of his longtime crush. 

Almost as if his thoughts he summoned her, the door on the far side of the room opens, and Jisoo strolls in. He doesn’t know why he does it, but Jinyoung jumps to his feet the minute he lays eyes on her. The movement startles Bomi. She follows his gaze to the door and sees Jisoo walking in.

Jisoo has already been to the costume department, so she’s sporting a pink plaid dress over a white top. It’s the same shade of pink as Bomi’s dress and the tropical details on Jinyoung’s shirt, but it has more of a rustic feel. She still has purple hair like a nebula.

“Hey! Sorry I’m late!” Jisoo says, clutching her script and bowing in apology. She greets Bomi politely and exchanges a few words. Then, she looks at Jinyoung with the same bright smile she wears every week. All of a sudden, Jinyoung’s nerves are starting to subside, and his heartbeat calms down. He starts feeling the cool air blowing on his skin again. He’s glad Jisoo is here to chase away the tension in the room.

“So, have you two gotten far with today’s script?” Jisoo asks, taking a seat next to Bomi. The Apink member shakes her head.

“We were waiting for you to get here so we could all do it together,” Bomi says and then looks at Jinyoung. “In the meantime, we’ve just been getting to know each other.”

Jisoo looks between Bomi and Jinyoung. “Great!” Jisoo says. “Do you two know each other?” She flips through her script while she waits for an answer.

“We’ve had a few run-ins at waiting rooms,” Jinyoung answers, relieved that he’s finally able to form a cohesive sentence for once since Bomi got here. “But this is the first time we’ve been MC’s together.”

Bomi smiles at him, and Jinyoung’s cheeks flush, a detail that doesn’t escape Jisoo’s notice. She looks between the Apink member and the GOT7 member with a knowing look in her eye. 

“Should we go over our lines and cues, together?” Jisoo suggests, then she looks at Jinyoung. “I guess since you’re the only man today, you get to be the main character.”

Jinyoung laughs. “I’m sorry I stole your limelight,” he replies. “You’ll get it back next week, maybe.”

“Not if I decide to steal it from you later today,” Jisoo says.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Jinyoung says, smirking.

Bomi flips the script open to her first line, taking notice of the easy way Jisoo and Jinyoung banter and counter each other’s quick remarks, bouncing off the other’s energy like true professional MC’s. The three of them go over their lines once and then mark and re-rehearse the parts that they stumble on. Once they are comfortable with everything, they go over it one more time just to be completely sure.

Jisoo uses a highlighter to mark up the lines in her script. She misses Doyoung, for sure. The boy has a sunny demeanor that mixed nicely between Jisoo’s high energy and Jinyoung’s more tame nature. But she likes having Bomi around, too. It’s been a while since she has worked with another woman on Inkigayo. She looks up at Bomi and thinks that she ought to start a friendly conversation with the Apink member. But when Jisoo looks up, she sees Jinyoung, instead.

He, too, has finished marking up his script, and Jisoo catches him gazing at Bomi as she rereads her lines. There’s a vulnerable look on Jinyoung’s face as he stares at the older girl, as if he’s afraid she may disappear. His eyes are so soft that Jisoo’s breath catches when she looks at them. And then she feels an odd, dull pain in her chest as she realizes that Jinyoung must have feelings for Bomi.

Oh, she thinks. How… sweet.

When his head begins to turn, Jisoo hurriedly looks back down at her script and tries to look busy. She suddenly feels very embarrassed to have caught Jinyoung looking so vulnerable. She has known him for some time now, enough to know that he is an intensely private person despite living much of his life in the public sphere. She wouldn’t like him prying into his feelings. 

Hers, however, feel very muddled at the moment. If he was Doyoung and Jisoo found out about his feelings for a guest MC, she would have like an older sister. Her better instincts tell her she should just laugh and joke with Jinyoung, too. After all, why should she care who Jinyoung likes and doesn’t like? But… still… she can’t bring herself to… smile.

Jisoo stands up. Her action startles both her coworkers, as they look at and stare at her.

“Everything alright?” Jinyoung asks. Jisoo nods.

“I’m just gonna grab a drink from the vending machine in the hall,” she says. Then she squeezes past Bomi and Jinyoung and retreats into the hallway. Bomi and Jinyoung watch her as she exits the room, but Jinyoung watches her retreating form with a bigger measure of concern. Over the months, he’s become familiar with Jisoo’s voices: the bright, cheerful voice she uses when she’s filming; the sugary, high-pitched voice she uses when she wants something from her manager; the deeper, husky voice she uses for every day; but her voice sounded different that time. It worries him.

He also becomes aware that by leaving to get a drink, Jisoo has once again left him alone with Bomi. Suddenly, the pressure to entertain her and be a good host to her is back, and it starts to crush him again. Before it can get any worse, he stands up.

“Sorry, just give me a minute,” he says, bowing to Bomi before excusing himself out of the room. Once in the hallway, he starts looking for Jisoo. To his surprise, he actually does find her by the vending machine. 

Jinyoung walks up to her and Jisoo looks surprised. 

“Do you want a drink, too?” she says. “I highly recommend Trevi sparkling water.”

Jinyoung ignores her little joke. “Is everything okay?” he asks. 

Jisoo isn’t sure how to answer since she herself isn’t exactly sure how she feels. She surprised herself, in fact, when she stood up and walked out. She isn’t sure what possessed her to do that and make a scene. Maybe it’s because as much as she’ll deny it to anyone, she does like Jinyoung, and she can’t bear to be in the same room as Jinyoung as he turns a loving gaze on another girl. Or maybe it’s because she’s his friend, and friends leave their friends in rooms with the girl they like in a show of solidarity. Jisoo decides to believe the latter.

“I’m okay,” she says. “But what are you doing out here?”

“Checking on you,” he says. Jisoo twists open a bottle of water and widens her eyes at Jinyoung. She can play the part of the matchmaking friend. It’s easier, anyway, than playing the part of the girl with an embarrassing crush.

“Okay, but what are you doing here?” she asks. “Bomi is all alone in there! Don’t you want to keep her company?”

“What?” Jinyoung asks. How did she even know that? Was he really that transparent? Jisoo rolls her eyes at him.

“You really are that transparent, Jinyoung,” she says, as if reading his mind. “I left the room to give you a little privacy, some alone time with her. You like her, right?”

“I… I…,” Jinyoung stammers. Unbelievable. Jisoo nags him again and then grabs him by the sleeve. She pushes him back toward the door and tells him to be more confident. To tell Bomi how he feels and just be nice to her and enjoy her presence. 

“And then, after the recording,” Jisoo says, whispering. “Ask her out!”

Jinyoung narrows his eyes at her. She knew as damn well as he did that dating among idols wasn’t as simple as “asking someone out.” 

He twists the knob and goes back into the room while Jisoo once again makes herself scarce. Bomi still sits on the couch, and she smiles when Jinyoung rejoins her. They make small talk again, but Jinyoung is still thinking of the odd interaction he just had with Jisoo in the hallway.

He had gone to check on her because he was worried. In the time he and Jisoo had spent together as MC’s, their relationship progressed from strangers to coworkers and acquaintances to friends, and oftentimes, their relationship skirts around the borders of flirtation. He had thought—between the lingering looks and all the “accidental” touches—that maybe Jisoo felt something for him. But now here she is, pushing him toward another girl entirely. Had he been wrong?

A/N: Inspired by the most recent episode of Inkigayo, in which Jinoyung got to MC with Apink's Bomi, the girl that he once said was his ideal type. I just couldn't help writing this when the idea came to me. No hate to Bomi, though, I love Apink and I love Blackpink <3 Nothing but love for these groups. This'll be a really short piece, probably no more than 2/3 parts. Also, if you like Jinji, please consider checking out my other Jinji stories: Nevermind, Goodnight and A Thousand Purple Stars