Once again, the AC is blasting in the room, yet Jinyoung can’t help but feel stuffed and hot. He looks enviously over at Doyoung, who is sitting on an upholstered chair looking comfortable and fresh in a Pyeongchang Olympics t-shirt and a beret that a coordinator gave him to wear. Jisoo is sitting on the couch opposite the one Jinyoung has occupied. She’s wearing a Pyeongchang t-shirt, too. It is tucked into a denim skirt and her purple hair is straight and loose.

She hasn’t taken her eyes off her script since they walked into the room. She hasn’t said a word, either. Not since last week, at least not to him.

Doyoung looks up from his bundle of papers and is about to suggest that they begin running through their parts when he notices both hung and noona staring intensely down at their scripts. Strange, he thinks. They seem rather quiet today. Maybe it’s not so unusual for Jinyoung, as he is the quieter one in their trio, but something about his aura seems off. As for Jisoo, normally, by now, she would have started two or three conversations about a recent environmental disaster or about someone she met in the hallway. But up to now, she has been silent.

Doyoung suddenly tunes himself into the atmosphere and senses tension. Something has shifted between these two in the last week or so, and it is making them awkward.

He isn’t an idiot. Of course Doyoung has noticed that his two co-MC’s have gotten closer over the months they’ve spent working together. Carefree Jisoo noona is the type to lavish the object of her affection with her smiles and cleverness, but in such a way that blurs the line between friendship and flirtation. Jinyoung hyung is more careful; one has to be paying close attention to notice the subtle ways that his attitude toward Jisoo is different from the way he is with everyone else. 

If this were like any other week, by now, Doyoung would be knee-deep in their secret glances and shy smiles and small talk. Today, however, there is just silence. 

He stands up. “I’m going to use the toilet,” Doyoung said in an unnaturally upbeat way. He steps away from the seating area before either of them can protest and quickly runs out the door.

Alone at last, Jinyoung looks over at Jisoo and inwardly panics. Without another thought, he too excuses himself to the toilet. Jinyoung clenches his fist as her heads out the door, but to his surprise he is intercepted by Doyoung. The NCT member is, interestingly, not in the toilets at all, but is leaning against the wall in the hallway, scrolling through his phone.

“Doyoung?” Jinyoung says.

The younger MC looks up with eyes as wide as a doe’s and twice as panicked.

“What are you doing?” Doyoung whispers, walking toward him.

“I thought you were going to the bathroom?” Jinyoung said. 

Doyoung just stares at him for a minute and then clicks his tongue. He takes Jinyoung by the arm and leads him back to the waiting room door.

“What are you doing?” Jinyoung asks.

“Why are you two being so awkward?” Doyoung asks with a whisper. The color drains from Jinyoung’s face. Doyoung gives him a knowing look.

“Yes, hyung,” Doyoung says. “You really are that transparent. Something happened between you two, and it’s making things awkward. So I suggest you go back in there and fix things with noona before we go on camera.”

Doyoung gives Jinyoung one last look before waltzing off to find a restroom or a friend to run into in the hallway, leaving Jinyoung to once again ask himself what just happened. When he turns the knob and goes back into the room, Jisoo doesn’t turn around to greet him. He quietly takes his place on the sofa opposite Jisoo. 

This is even worse, he thinks, than the time he was left alone with Bomi. At least, with Bomi, he knew that it was just one week of awkwardness. But Jisoo is a regular MC on Inkigayo. If he cannot patch things up in the next twenty minutes or so, he’s afraid that things will be this way between them from now on. He swallows a hard lump in his throat and fidgets with his hands.

After what feels like eternity and a half, Jisoo finally puts down her script and talks.

“So,” she says when the silence becomes too much for her, too. “Did you ask Bomi out?”

Oh god, Jinyoung thinks. This again.

“I did, actually,” he answers. He thinks again of that moment, back in this very waiting room one week ago. Jisoo doesn’t react to his answer the way he thinks she would. In fact, it feels as though she is trying hard not to react at all. He manages to catch her bite her bottom lip.

“And?” she asks.

Jinyoung sighs. “She turned me down.”

Only then does Jisoo look up and meet his eyes. There’s a look of disbelief plastered on her face.

“What?” she says. “Why?”

He shrugs. “I guess… she wasn’t into me.” 

JIsoo gives him a piteous look, as if he were a stray puppy. 

“Oh,” she says gently. “I guess it can’t be helped.”

Jinyoung doesn’t know what to say in reply. 

“Still,” Jisoo says after another beat of silence. “I’m sorry. I saw that interview you did years ago. You said she was your ideal type. You must have been really excited.”

If she focuses, she can still recall the look on his face when she caught him looking at Bomi. Jinyoung looks at her and can guess what she is thinking about. A reply manages to fall out of him haphazardly. 

“Jisoo,” he says tentatively. “You do know that… when interviewers ask ideal type questions that… our answers don’t really mean anything, right?”

She gives him a confused look.

“I… what?” Jisoo says.

Jinyoung begins speaking before he really even has time to flesh out what he is trying to say.

“It’s actually more like a form of fan service than an actual answer,” he leans forward on the sofa and explains this with a shaky voice. He doesn’t know why he’s suddenly switched to sunbae mode and is mansplaining the concept of fan service to Jisoo of all people. 

“It’s purposefully vague so that virtually anyone could fit those standards,” he says. “In the past, I’ve said things like… girls who smile with their teeth, girls with a lot of aegyo, girls who love their work, girls with a pure kind of charm, things like that.”

He feels almost embarrassed to be rehashing his ideal type in front of her. Or anyone, really. For so long, he had been describing a certain type of girl, but the truth is, he’s no longer sure he even believes in types. People are individuals, after all. 

Jisoo blinks at him. “So,” she says. “You were actually just describing Bomi unni, but in as vague terms as possible?”

He in a breath. “No,” he says, rubbing the skin beneath his ear. “Well, yeah, I was back then… but now… that wasn’t the point.”

She scoffs, amused. “What was the point, then?” she asks. 

“The point was,” Jinyoung says. “You shouldn’t lend those things too much weight. Ideal types don’t mean anything.”

“Oh,” she says, settling back into the sofa and nodding. “Thank you for the advice.”

Jinyoung thinks he might pop a vein. Why is it so difficult for him to just say what means?

“What I mean to say is,” he says carefully. “My ideal types isn’t the be-all, end-all of people that I’m attracted to, and you may meet someone who fits your type exactly and feel nothing for them. I did like Bomi then… but now…”

Jisoo scoots forward on the sofa, waiting for him to finish, but he lets his voice trail off and doesn’t complete his thought. He doesn’t see the ghost of a smirk finding its way onto her face as she realizes what it is he’s trying to say.

“But now you like someone else?” Jisoo asks.

Jinyoung isn’t a self-centered person. Despite what others have told him and what his fans might say, he thinks his appearance is just slightly above average. His personality is more reserved and he typically requires a settling-in period of about three or four months before new acquaintances can really begin to see him at his most attractive, but few ever stick around that long. As a result, he hasn’t asked many girls out. He’s had crushes for sure and has been through quite a few “talking” stages, but no girlfriend. 

So Bomi’s rejection still has a keen sting when he thinks about it. He isn’t quite ready to try confessing again anytime soon. He swallows and tries to switch the focus away from himself.

“Anyway, I’m talking too much,” he says, leaning back on the sofa. “You’ve probably been asked that question a million times already, anyway, ‘what is your ideal type?’” 

He isn’t actually asking her that question, but it still gets Jisoo thinking. She shrugs.

“Well, back then, it used to be someone kind with a soft spot for me, especially,” she explains. 

Jinyoung raises his brows. “Oh,” he says, rubbing his wrist. “Back then? What is it now?”

She doesn’t take her eyes off him: “You.”

Jinyoung is disarmed. He feels like floating to the ceiling and crashing to the ground all at the same time. His stomach is doing somersaults. When he looks at Jisoo with wide eyes, it feels like he is seeing her for the first time again, and she’s radiant. When he tries to say something, he can only stammer.

“Jisoo,” he manages to say, and her name sounds like the tenderest word he’s ever heard in any language. Then she gives him a shy smile, and he feels his heart crumble into a million tiny pieces. 

But then the door opens, and in walks Doyoung and two stagehands who tell the pair that it is almost time to roll the cameras. Jisoo and Jinyoung grab their scripts and must shelve the moment for now. 

This episode is the Pyeongchang Olympic special, so the stage has been decorated to promote the upcoming winter games, they are all wearing promotion t-shirts, and Jisoo is holding a plush toy of the games’ mascot. With Doyoung back in the equation, the trio falls back into their comfortable dynamic, and everything runs smoothly for the most part. 

But Jinyoung hasn’t recovered from Jisoo’s confession back in the waiting room. How can she act so calm and normal after delivering such a bombshell? How can she stick to the script like always and act like she didn’t just change everything between them?

He is professional, as always, but he is hyperaware of her now. Every time her elbow accidentally bumps his or every time her knees skims his pant leg, it feels like fireworks are going inside of him. Every time she turns her gaze on him, he feels like he’s going to spontaneously combust. He doesn’t even mind the admiring gazes that the members of EXO turn on her. He doesn’t care when the other boys subtly try to flirt with her during interviews or when they pass her gifts and small flower bouquets. 

The only thought he can register is: “This girl likes me. This girl likes me.”

A string of curses speed through his head as he tries to get a hold of himself. He’s never been anyone’s ideal type before, and he wasn’t expecting to be. 

As the episode is ending, Jinyoung stops by the stairs and helps some of the female idols climb down from the stage. Doyoung is on the other side of the stairwell doing the same. Nothing out of the ordinary. But when Jinyoung reaches his hand out to guide Jisoo down from the stage as he usually does, their eyes meet again. Their hands touch, as they usually do. But this time, Jinyoung feels her give his knuckles a gentle, deliberate squeeze, and Jinyoung swears that she has let her hand linger in his for one heartbeat longer than usual. 

She’s never done that before. 

As she walks toward the dressing room, she turns and gives him one more look. And that seals it for him. He knows what to do now, and he’s found the courage to do it. He’s going to ask her out. Today.

His heart is racing as he makes his way over to his waiting room to change back into his normal clothing and wipe the makeup off his face. He lets his manger remind him of his other schedules and signs a few pieces of paper for the newbies. He is radiating with anticipation, body and soul.

As soon as he can, he rushes out of his waiting room and looks for her.

He half jogging over to her waiting room when he notices the door to the costume department is slightly ajar, and something possesses to look in through the gap. There she is, sitting in a chair that is turned toward the mirror. Her head is turned down and she is reading something on her phone screen, but he can see the reflection of her face in the mirror. 

The memory crashes into him. The last time he’d seen her this way was that time he saw her cry. Last time, he stood in the doorway, looking in through the gap and stopping himself from rushing in. Her sadness was a space that she let him see but not enter. 

But then Jisoo looks up, and she catches his eyes in the mirror. Their eyes meet. She doesn’t say a word or move or do anything but sit there and let him see her. 

She smiles. Jinyoung opens the door and enters. 

A/N: I am the worst at updating, I'm so sorry. I realized after writing Part 2 that I didn't do enough planning for this short fic and that I started without having a clear vision of an ending. Sorry to make you all wait!