With the album done, all Jihoon had to do around the studio was wait for Soonyoung to choreograph the song. 

He thought that would be a lot of fun, as he would get the chance to spend more time with you. To spend less time stressing about writing the perfect songs, and just focus on recording them with the other guys.

But... Instead... He hadn’t accounted for Soonyoung needing your help and turning most of your attention to helping him choreograph the new dances. Every time you were at Pledis now it seemed like you were just there for Soonyoung. During meals you two would sit next to each other, half eating half writing in a notebook, brushing shoulders, giggling incessantly.

It was annoying, it was the last thing that Jihoon wanted to hear when he was trying to eat, and you didn’t even seem to be noticing just how annoyed Jihoon was to watch you guys. He hated it even more because he wasn’t really mad at Soonyoung, and he wasn’t mad at you. He was mad at himself because he was starting to like you guys so much.

He found it so endearing when one of you would jump up and run the choreography in progress. He loved to see how excited you both got whenever you made any progress with the dance at all. He even found himself leaning on the door in the entrance, watching as you two ran through each and every part.

He loved how happy you got every time you heard his song. When the song would get close to the chorus and you would get so happy, and excited that you would start doing the dance right next to Soonyoung, practically screaming the lyrics in the little studio.

It made Soonyoung laugh every time and it made Jihoon’s heart warm.

He hadn’t realized just how lucky he was to constantly have your uninterrupted attention until he had lost it. Was he really, that crazy? Crazy enough to start… Liking someone like you?

That was the only explanation for his ridiculous feelings. He knew it, he’d be dumb not to come to the conclusion that he was pretty sure everyone else in Pledis was aware of. You had won. Somehow, someway, you had wrapped him around your finger. He truly liked you.

“What are you doing?”

Jihoon jumped slightly, wondering when exactly Soonyoung had gotten there. He cleared his throat.

“Uh, just checking up on you guys,” he assured. Soonyoung smiled, one of those small soft smiles he did sometimes when he knew more than he was letting on. It made Jihoon frown and cross his arms at the other boy.

“Right,” Soonyoung mumbled. “You sure you weren’t just trying to get a glimpse of y/n over there?”

Jihoon’s face reddened a bit and he glared at Soonyoung.

“Shut up,” he mumbled. “Why would I care what she was doing anyways?”

Soonyoung shrugged.

“Why don’t you tell me?”
You started to hum in the studio, making both Jihoon and Soonyoung turn their attention towards you. You didn’t seem to have any clue they were both standing in the doorway watching you as you started to dance to whatever tune you were humming.

The dance was surprisingly a bit y, but equally kind of cute. It wasn’t anything Jihoon had ever seen before but before he could really place any of your movements properly you paused in your ministrations and rehummed part of what you had hummed before. Then you started to sing some words, slower, and repeating the motions. Jihoon was surprised to find they were familiar…

It was one of your songs. You had a tune to one of the songs and judging by the way that you were moving. Re-singing stuff as you slowed the choreography and tweaked it in your own ways. You were choreographing to your own song.

“Were you guys…?”

“Just choreographing to our stuff,” Soonyoung replied with a shake of his head. Jihoon rested his head against the doorframe.

“Why isn’t she training to be an idol?” He asked suddenly. Soonyoung’s eyebrows furrowed.

“What do you mean?” He asked cluelessly. Jihoon rolled his eyes and gestured to her.

“I mean, she can dance, and sing… She loves to be onstage. So why isn’t she trying to become an idol? Why doesn’t she audition to be a trainee?” He asked. Soonyoung seemed to think it over for a moment. His nose scrunched.

“I wouldn’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never thought of it before.”

Soonyoung and Jihoon stared at you silently for a long moment. You scrunched your nose as you did a certain dance move you clearly didn’t like and started over that bit of the song thoughtfully.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be an idol,” Soonyoung suggested. Jihoon shook his head confidently.

“No…” He stated. “She said it herself. She definitely wants to be one… So why?”

It didn’t make sense. You acted so certain of yourself, just going after things when you knew that you wanted them in your life. Jihoon couldn’t recall a time in which he had seen you hesitate over anything you were truly passionate about. So then, why wouldn’t you audition to be a trainee now?

Soonyoung was just staring at Jihoon, his eyes watching him carefully as his mind turned, trying to put together a puzzle that he simply didn’t have all the pieces too.

They stood there like that for a long moment, both boys completely and utterly lost in thought before suddenly you popped up in-between the two.

“Hello,” you said, chuckling nervously. “Uh… What are you guys talking about?”

“We weren’t talking,” Soonyoung replied innocently. “We were watching you choreograph.”

Your face reddened.

“I wasn’t choreographing,” you insisted. You looked over at Jihoon. “What are you doing here?”

He knew that you were embarrassed, and as such you liked to deflect the attention off of yourself to someone else potentially being stranger or more outstanding then you at the moment, but that didn’t give you any right to antagonize him like this.

“Checking in is all,” he responded. He scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Your head fell to the side innocently.

“I saw you at dinner.”

It would have been cuter, had it not been exactly the sort of reaction to such a statement, that Jihoon would get from Soonyoung.

It wasn’t that he was jealous or anything. How could he be jealous after all? He knew that you liked him. You had told him a million times that was true. He hated how much he yearned to hear you say those words to him nowadays, how sometimes he would play the cards he thought he had to play, just so that you would confess to him again.

It was selfish, a little manipulative.

“Yeah…” He mumbled. He dropped his hand to his side. “I’m going to go back to my room with Mingyu for the night. See you guys tomorrow.”

“See you!” You called back pleasantly. “Breakfast in bed tomorrow- well not really but sorta. You guys get a real break. Events of the day are a total secret.”

“Sounds like fun,” Jihoon said with a small smile.

“Of course, it will be, I planned it,” you stated pleasantly. You then grabbed Soonyoung’s arm and tugged him back into the dance room. “Okay Soon, ten more minutes and then you really have to get to bed.”

But… Sometimes, Jihoon just really needed the reassurance that you liked him for him to justify his own feelings for you.

He didn’t think that his actions were too obvious. After all, he wasn’t in a relationship with you. How could he possibly be lovesick if he wasn’t in love with you?

But when he walked into his room and all but faceplanted onto his bed, Mingyu was quick to set down his book and pat Jihoon on the back.

“Thinking about Y/n?” He asked softly. Jihoon rolled over to face the soon-to-be rapper.

“No,” he scoffed. “Why would I be thinking about her?”

“She doesn’t know how you feel,” Mingyu assured softly. “If you just tell her that you want to spend more time with her, she’ll bend over backwards to be with you.”

At first Jihoon didn’t respond. He didn’t want to admit that he had been thinking about you, but he couldn’t help the way his lips pursed at how easy that all sounded.

“But… Isn’t it unfair of me? She’s spending her time helping Soonyoung,” he mumbled. Mingyu laughed.

“Girls like it when you’re unfair sometimes. As long as you acknowledge that it’s a little selfish that is,” he suggested politely. “It shows them that you care enough about them being in your life to show something that stereotypically makes a guy seem weak.”

Jihoon sat up, his eyebrows furrowing.

“What?” He questioned.

“Emotions,” Mingyu replied with a firm nod. “Girls love it when guys are emotional.”
“You sure do seem to have a lot of experience with this,” he mumbled hesitantly, trying to make it seem like he didn’t care at all what advice he was being given. Even so, it had his mind churning.

“Well, unlike you I’ve dated before,” Mingyu responded. He got to his feet, walking back over to his own bed. “And I’ve also had friends who are girls before.”

Jihoon stared at the wall in front of him.

“Rude,” he mumbled, but didn’t dwell on the topic. “Thanks.”

“No problem Jihoon. Get some rest or your little girlfriend will be upset with you,” Mingyu teased. Jihoon rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at Mingyu, but he did allow himself to doze off not long after Mingyu fell silent.

-

“Good morning Seventeen!”

The door to Jihoon’s room swung open for the hundredth time. He paid no attention to it. Just like he had paid no attention to Doyoon, or Samuel, or Mingyu, or even Seungkwan’s attempts to wake him up.

It didn’t matter who in Seventeen tried to drag him out of his bed, all he wanted to do in the morning was lay there. Take his time getting up out of bed and brushing his teeth and eating food and composing music.

That was the dream right there.

Not to have sixteen immature members of a boy group trying one by one to drag him out of bed.

So today, when there was no real reason to get up at this god-awful time in the morning, he simply wasn’t going to do it. He was going to stay in bed until he felt like getting up.

“He still won’t get up,” Seungkwan pouted. “I’ve been singing in his ear for like half an hour.”

The other person didn’t respond to him, but Jihoon heard their footsteps nearing the bed. He wondered idly who it might be, what member was going to try next to wake him up.

The footsteps stopped, just in front of his bed, and suddenly the mattress dipped slightly. He was confused, it was like someone had put their weight on his mattress, but not all of their weight.

“I know you’re awake Jihoon.”

Jihoon’s eyes shot open, and low-and-behold, crouched by his bed, you were there, your arms crossed to cushion your chin. You looked so beautiful today. Bright and happy as always, despite the heavy bags under your eyes. Jihoon knew you hadn’t slept the night before.

Before he could say a word to you, you smiled brightly and reached forward. Your index finger delicately brushed a strand of hair from his face.

“That’s better,” you mumbled. “Looks like you got some sleep last night. Kind of makes me glad that all those late nights spent in the studio are over. You have time to relax.”

Jihoon let a small smile spread across his lips.

“I think you’re just excited to spend some time with Soonyoung instead of me,” he mumbled. You rolled your eyes.

“As if,” you replied. Your voice was so soft, like velvet… It was almost as if you were trying to keep your voice down so that you wouldn’t bother him too much. “You think I would prefer to spend my time with a Gemini? Over you?”

Jihoon rolled his eyes, but a chuckle was still ripped from his throat.

Honestly, you could have likely said anything and Jihoon might have still laughed softly. He was just happy to be here with you. To get to talk to you, and see you, and be this close to you. God, he missed you. He didn’t think he had ever missed someone so much in his life. Especially not someone who was supposed to just be an emotional and physical anchor in his life while he prepared for debut.

“Alright buddy, everyone says you’re the last member to need to get out of bed. We’ve got a fun day ahead of us,” you assured. “I’ll let you in on a little secret… We’re going to a theme park.”

Jihoon didn’t shift at all. He just stared at you blankly.

You pouted at the reaction.

“Don’t act like that, it’s going to be fun,” you mumbled. You hit him playfully on the head. “Now get up, we have to get there early or else we’ll have to wait in a lot of lines.”

Jihoon rolled his eyes, and honestly, normally, if it had been any other member, he would have just waved away the request and rolled back over onto his side and fallen asleep.

But… It wasn’t just any member. It was you.

Jihoon sat up in bed, rolling his eyes when he saw the way that everyone who had tried to wake him up was looking at him for just getting up for you.

Why did they have to be so dramatic about everything?
“I was just about to get up anyways,” he mumbled.

The other members were clearly about to tease Jihoon for it, but before they could you cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

“Let’s go to Everland!”

Everland was the biggest theme park in Korea and was the first family amusement park in the entire country. It was a popular tourist destination, even outside of the terms of the small country.

You had apparently been to Everland a hundred times in your life. You couldn’t stop talking about all the places you guys would have to go once you got there. All the sights you wanted everyone to make sure they saw. All the locations in the theme park that were your favorite.

Quite honestly, everyone was so excited to see you act like a little kid after how slightly stressed you had seemed recently that they didn’t care if any of them actually liked the idea of going to an amusement park or not.

You were practically bouncing in the seat of the bus you had convinced Pledis to get everyone you were so excited to get to the amusement park. You kept babbling random facts about the place too. Just things you must have picked up at some point during one of your many trips.

It was pretty cute to see you so nostalgic over your childhood.

Made Jihoon want to know more about it. You didn’t talk about yourself a lot outside of Pledis. You tried really hard not to make things about yourself when you were with the boys. Jihoon understood why, but he didn’t know why you continued to keep it up these days considering all the boys wanted to do was make everything about you.

You grabbed Jun’s arm in your excitement, smiling brightly at him.

“Just wait till we get there! They have haunted houses!” You said excitedly. “You and I can brave the masses, and watch Seungkwan and Hansol- sorry, Vernon cry in a corner.”

Jun chuckled, covering the action with the back of his hand but it was enough to make Seungkwan glare at him anyways.

“I’m not that scared of haunted houses,” he lied through his teeth, but nobody on the bus seemed to believe it. “You get scared by Wonwoo at night one time.”

“Wonwoo, Dongjin, Mingming, Seungcheol, me once too, and then-” You began to correct. Seungkwan interrupted you by lunging over one of the seats on the bus and tackling you onto the bus floor. You burst into giggles, but that didn’t prevent a few of the boys from jumping up to look in concern at the two of you tumbling on the ground.

Jihoon wanted to say he wasn’t one of those people, but he caught himself rising to his feet after a short second. He sighed, wishing he hadn’t been so stupid and obvious with his feelings for you, but he was a little worried that one of these days you would hurt yourself by messing around with the other guys.

His concern- and everyone else’s- was mostly misplaced as both you and Seungkwan peeked up from the floor with large goofy smiles on their faces, completely unscathed.

“You idiot,” you laughed. Seungkwan’s nose wrinkled.

“You’re one to talk,” he stated back. “Dragging seventeen boys to a theme park, and you’re planning on being the sole babysitter? You’re an idiot and a psycho.”

“That’s where you are wrong Kwan,” you replied perkily, jumping back to your feet. You stood, rather confidently in the center of the bus. “Today’s going to be fun! One of those days you will all look back on one day and just… Reminisce.”

Your overly ecstatic expression diminished slightly, your smile wavering. You took Seungkwan by the wrist and eased him to his feet, guiding him back to his seat. He pouted at the gentle actions you were suddenly using but didn’t comment on it other than that.

You quietly returned to your seat prompting Seungcheol to lean over his seat, looking at you sympathetically. He tilted his head to the side and murmured something to you, but it was too quiet for Jihoon to hear and he wasn’t good at reading lips. You rolled your eyes at whatever he had said and batted him with your hand. Jihoon didn’t hear what you said back, but he had an idea you told Seungcheol to turn back around.

Seungcheol clearly didn’t want to write off the moment as nothing because he made a face at you, replying: “We need to talk about this y/n.”

You shook your head, and when Seungcheol didn’t accept that as an answer you got back up to your feet. You began to walk down the aisle of the bus towards the bus driver. Seungcheol seemed annoyed by that, but when he noticed that Jihoon was watching him, he shot him a misleading smile and turned back around in his seat.

Jihoon wondered what that was about but decided that if anyone wanted to talk to him about it, one of them would. So instead, he kept quiet.

By the time you all arrived to the theme park, you were the same as you always were, and Seungcheol and Doyoon no longer seemed to be too terribly upset with you. Everyone filed out of the bus and followed you to the gates of the park, listening as you spoke all to excitedly about the different parking lots you used to park in as a kid, and talked about which rides you guys were going to all have to ride.

You were talking about one of the rollercoasters and before Jihoon had even registered what you were saying you started to point at the boys.

“Everyone needs to have partners for the day so it’s not hard to divvy up for rides and stuff,” you stated pointedly and before you could say anymore, the group was already grabbing partners.

Hansol and Seungkwan, Mingyu and Wonwoo, Mingming and Junhui, Minghao and Samuel… The list went on. Jihoon was about to turn and find someone when he realized with a start that there was only one person left to be with.

He looked at you, his cheeks turned a faint shade of pink. You smiled at him.

“Guess it’s us then,” you murmured. Jihoon couldn’t help noticing that you didn’t look disappointed at all.

“Guess so,” he responded.

You didn’t let the moment last for very long. Instead you turned to the rest of the group and smiled.

“Okay guys, let’s go!”

To say that things were chaos from the start was an understatement. The park employees didn’t seem to appreciate your level of preparedness. You stood at the entrance going over every ticket issue that came up. Making sure everyone got in the park smoothly.

You lead the boys pretty confidently, separating the large group into four smaller groups in which you had paired pairs that you thought would all be able to have the most fun and get the most done.

Jihoon couldn’t help but watch and wonder just how long it had taken you to think all of this through. The amount of forethought that went into this trip was a little crazy and along with that you practically had to predict who would end up being partnered together.

He considered saying something to you about it, but instead of doing that he ended up just watching you as you sorted everything out. You gave everyone walkie talkies and appointed one person in each group “leader for the day”. You told them when to meet up for food, and when to meet up just so that you could make sure that everyone was doing okay and once you were finally done with all of that you told them when to meet up at the end of the day to leave the park.

“Oh!” You said, just before you let everyone split up. “Just so you are aware. Today isn’t all fun like I said before.”

You gestured to the area that everyone was standing at, just at the exit of the park.

“Tonight, this will be your stage. You guys are going to do a quick flash mob of two of the dances you already know, and the fun part is that you guys won’t know which songs until tonight when they start playing.”

The boys all smiled, no one looking disappointed or surprised really that this was a promotion opportunity. Jihoon figured it was possibly the only way you could get Pledis to agree to this outing, and he couldn’t even imagine how much it could have cost.

 He wondered if that’s why you had picked up so many hours at your other job recently, barely giving yourself time to breath- just so that you could allow them to have this day of fun.

Before he could ponder that thought aloud, you began to rummage through your bag.

“Now just come over to me and put these wristbands on- it’s so employees know to call me if something is up with you guys and also a meal plan pass! You guys can pretty much eat anything in the park,” you said. As you spoke the boys started to line up behind you, and you simply began to fasten the wrist bands around their wrists as they went. Once you finished talking, you just softly reminded each boy to be careful, and to text if they needed anything until finally you got to Jihoon.

Your fingers were soft as they brushed against the skin of his wrist. You put the band on him loosely, clearly making sure to make it fit comfortably as you did so. You smiled at him once you had it securely on him, and hesitantly intertwined your fingers with his.
“Ready to have the best pre-debut trip ever?”

His face was burning red, so he looked away and nodded.

“Sure, let’s do it.”

You went so far out of your way to make the trip to the amusement park worth it that it almost made Jihoon a little dizzy. You dragged him around the park, pointing out each and every store, and each and every spot worth seeing. You told him your favorite park memories, and insisted he ride every ride.

You were so full of energy that anytime you saw another Seventeen member you would loudly say:

“Say the name-”

To which they would reply.

“Seventeeeeennnnn.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes every time, telling you that if you kept spoiling the song that he wanted to put on the next album he would have to tell on you to Pledis. You just laughed it off and took him to the next location on your internal list.

It was hard to imagine going on a date with you.

Not because you weren’t dateable but because he couldn’t really imagine that you two would ever be able to do something normal like ride a roller coaster, and buy the pictures and sit down by a fake lake and talk about absolutely nothing while kids tried to feed birds their pizza nearby.

But this felt an awful lot like a date.

The only thing you two were missing were murmured “I love you”’s and tender kisses in-between ride lines.

He cleared his throat as quietly as he could muster and got distracted looking at some trash on the ground.

“How much time do we have?” He asked.

He hated to admit it, but he was exhausted.

He had no clue how you managed to keep up your energy. You two had walked miles upon miles and on top of that you had broken into dance with the other guys multiple times as the radio switched from one pop song to the next.

Of course, it made him smile to watch you do it. He loved watching you dance and sing and enjoy yourself- especially when you were enjoying yourself with the other guys. He loved knowing that the smiles, the laughs, it was all completely genuine.

You were fake a lot, he knew it, they all knew it. You smiled to lure them into a false comfort, making them think that everything in your life was okay when in reality, Jihoon knew you were hiding a lot. Now-a-days more so then he was sure it was before.

He wondered if one day they would be able to get you to open up more. If you were training with them after all, would you still feel the need to pretend like you were so strong?

“23,” you mumbled softly. Jihoon’s eyebrows furrowed and he frowned slightly at you.

“23?” He asked.

“The number of times you have zoned out today while or after staring at me,” you replied pointedly. You said it so casually, that at first Jihoon thought he had misheard your words. You turned away as you said it, looking over a fence at one of the areas for kids. When Jihoon was silent for too long you glanced back over your shoulder at him, an amused expression settled over your face.

“Oh, uh-” He coughed slightly, his face warming. “I just-”

“You’re worried about me, I get it,” you replied offhandedly. “I’ve been acting a little weird recently haven’t I?”

You didn’t look at him, just rested your elbows on the metal rail with a short sigh. Jihoon scrunched his nose and leaned against the rail beside you.

“Well-”

“I’m sorry,” you mumbled. “I’ve gotten sloppy recently. In the past, it was easier to keep to myself when it came to you guys, but now we’re all so close, and I don’t want to lie to you.”

“To all of us you mean,” Jihoon corrected with a half frown. You shook your head.

“No, just you really,” you mumbled back, turning to properly face the man. “It’s cause I like you. I… If I want to date you, I have to be honest with you, but I know I still need to be professional.”

“No one expects you-”

“That’s half the problem,” you said with a sigh. “There’s nothing wrong with treating each other as friends, but it’s my job to take care of you guys. Not the other way around. You guys shouldn’t have to deal with my problems.”

“But you’re not just any employee,” Jihoon replied. You weren’t looking at him. Your body was facing him but your eyes… Your eyes were everywhere but where he wanted them to be. He could tell you were nervous, lost in thought, so to pull you out of your mind he took your hand, forcing your attention to be all his. “You’re you, and we care about you the way we care about you because you’re different than the others. We wouldn’t treat just any manager like this.”

You scoffed, but he tightened his grip on your hand at that, unable to keep himself from letting you go this time.

“Seriously, get out of your head,” he insisted softly. “We love you.”

I love you.

“I love you guys too but-”

“But nothing, get out of your head,” Jihoon interrupted. “I just need your trust okay. Trust me for once, trust me that everything is going to be okay. It’s all going to work out.”

Your eyes lowered from Jihoon’s to look at your intertwined hands. It made a small smile cross your lips.

“You know, spending time like this alone, taking my hand in yours, assuring me that everything is going to be okay when I am at my lowest?” You mumbled softly. “I’m starting to think that you might be falling for me.”

It came from your lips as a joke, like a whisper.

Again, Jihoon got distracted by your lips. He had never wanted to kiss someone more then he wanted to kiss you right now. And it was true. He really was falling for you. He really was starting to understand what it felt like- what it truly felt like to love somebody. To love you.

“Don’t be crazy,” he said with a laugh. “Me fall for you? That would almost be…”

“Impossible?” You finished with a roll of your eyes. He shook his head, his cheeks filling with color.

“I was going to say, inevitable,” he replied. Your eyes widened, but before you could say anything about it, he turned away from you, his fingers still tangled with yours. “Come on, let’s go. We are wasting precious time here.”

The day was over before Jihoon really even knew it had begun.

Before he knew it, they had just finished their impromptu final performance and were leaving the park together, all heading out to the bus. Chan and Samuel were excitedly sharing cotton candy, as they told the others about the crazy things that had happened to them while they were out, and you were discussing a few things with Hansol and Joshua in English. What of which, Jihoon wasn’t sure. He watched all the commotion happening around him while he listened to Mingyu talk to him about his own experiences at the park.

“Race you back to the bus,” you blurted at Seungkwan suddenly. His eyebrows shot up.

“Oh yeah? You’re on,” he said right back. Before either of them could even make a move, Samuel and Seokmin glanced at one another. A small smirk crossed Doyoon’s face.

“And go!” He blurted out of nowhere. You and Seungkwan faltered while Samuel, Seokmin, Jun, and Mingming raced forward. It made you laugh as you launched after them, but Seungkwan pouted, taking off slower.

“That’s not fair!” He protested.

Jihoon smiled after his friends, rolling his eyes at the childish behavior you guys were exhibiting.

He would never say it out loud, but he knew that it was moments like this that made his time here so precious. He hoped that nothing ever changed. Not after debut, not after they eventually left the group and went their own ways. Not ever. He always wanted to watch you all take off in the parking lot of a theme park like children on a playground. He loved it. He loved all of you guys.

You let out a celebratory whoop and jumped up and down in the air. You looked at him and cupped your mouth with your hands.

“Jihoon,” you blurted eagerly. “I won! Look! I actually beat them!”

Jihoon smiled.

He wasn’t sure, so there was no way to say for certain, but it was moments like these, looking at you that he thought maybe, just maybe he loved you too.

And somewhere deep down he hoped that never changed.

-

“We’re here!” Seungkwan practically sang as he burst into the small restaurant. He paused after a while and looked back at Seungcheol.

“Are you sure that she is working?” He asked her confused. “She’s not here.”
Chan pushed forward.

“She’s definitely here, she said she would be. I heard her, and she’s never lied before,” he said confidently. All of the boys crowded in front of the front counter, staring at the other employees there. You weren’t one of them. They never saw you go into the back, or leave the restaurant or anything so why wasn’t she where they could see?

“Did she pick up a second job?” Mingming asked. “You know how hard she is always pushing herself.”

“Maybe someone misheard her,”

“Aren’t you the guys that volunteer with y/n?”

Most of the guys looked confused, so Jihoon stepped forward and nodded slowly.

“Yeah, is she not working today?” He asked softly.

“She passed out today when she was almost done with her lunch shift,” her coworker replied pointedly. Simultaneously, all of the boys’ jaws dropped.

“What?!” They blurted. The employee was surprised by the outburst, covering her head protectively.

“U-uh, yeah. She was working outside, and she hadn’t eaten all day, and I guess the heat and over exhaustion got to her because she fell in the middle of an order. When she woke up, like two minutes later all she could do was apologize and insist she was fine, but she kept having to sit down so we told her to go home.”

“Did she?!” Seungkwan blurted. Her coworker rolled her eyes.

“Nah, she refused to, she’s right over there.”

She pointed over to a table, where they all looked just in time to see someone ducking under a table.

“She said it was too busy to just send her home and that she was fine, so she insisted on staying around in case we needed her,” her coworker responded with a roll of her eyes. “Maybe you guys can get her to go home.”

The girl yelled the last part, which made you pop up your head from beneath the table. You glared at the co-worker.

“You could have said literally anything,” you grumbled. “Say I’m on break, or got sent home early, or was doing something with the club. Literally anything. Seriously have a heart Mel.”

Her coworker… Mel, just made a face at her.

“Guess you should have thought about that before you worried all these people,” she replied back. You stuck your tongue out at her, and Mel just rolled her eyes and turned away.

“I’m serious, if you don’t get that girl out of this restaurant, I’ll remove her myself. She spends too much time here already and she needs to go home and get some rest.”

Jihoon watched until Mel had disappeared almost completely from his vision into the kitchen of the restaurant. It wasn’t until Jihoon heard Chan aggressively jump on you, that Jihoon was able to turn around and face the scene unfolding before him.

“You- you hypocrite!” Chan blurted angrily. You had practically disappeared within his arms, and gently pressed the younger boy off of you.

“It’s good to see you too Chan,” You mumbled. You scooted over slightly in the small booth that you were in, making enough room for Samuel and Mingming to squeeze in next to you. Soon enough, all the boys had made their way into the booth, making a small area meant to seat four, actually almost fit seventeen people.

Everyone was all talking at the same time, all worried about you. You seemed to be a little bit stressed out by the situation overall but didn’t comment at all. You just listened to what everyone had to say, inserting an apology every once in a while, and giving everyone a reassuring smile.

You were such a good little actress.

You had all of the boys thoroughly convinced that you would change your ways, that this was a fluke, that you weren’t usually so haphazardous about your health but Jihoon- he wasn’t falling for it.

He could tell by the way that you kept smiling, nodding your head, speaking even… He knew that today hadn’t been a fluke. He knew that you didn’t eat often, and that you pushed yourself a lot more then you should, and he knew you weren’t about to change your ways because you had almost passed out once.

He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, rolling his eyes to the side. You caught the motion and turned your attention towards Jihoon and Jihoon alone. He watched as your expression softened into something more genuine, more apologetic even.

Chan grabbed your wrist, startling your action back over to him. He pouted at you.

“You’re gonna go home and sleep now right?” He asked. You sighed, tilting your head to the side.

“Now you know I don’t have time for that,” you murmured. “I have responsibilities to attend to-”

“The world doesn’t end if you take a night off,” Seungcheol interrupted abruptly. Doyoon nodded his agreement.

“Seriously, pushing yourself like this is something an idol would do, not something you should do,” he stated firmly. Seungcheol seemed to appreciate the backing because he patted Doyoon’s shoulder in approval.

“If you expect us to take care of ourselves, you should set a good example too,” he stated softly. “You know how important it is if you want to achieve your goals someday.”

Doyoon was staring you down, his eyes filled with a sort of knowledge, like he knew something others didn’t. It made Seungcheol nod, and you lower your head to look at your hands. An indescribable expression fell over your face, something that was more mourningful then Jihoon was used to seeing you.

“Right, because that’s panning out so well,” you mumbled. “Look I’m giving up on all of that. I should just stick to what I’m good at.”

“And what do you think you’re good at?” Seungcheol asked. “Come on, you belong-”

“I belong here and that’s it. At this job,” you replied firmly, making direct eye contact with the older boy. You frowned deeply. “Look, I guess now is as good a time as ever to tell you guys- I’m quitting once your first promotional period is over.”

Everyone had been waiting for those words to leave your mouth. They had been anticipating that news since you started insinuating that you wouldn’t be with them forever, but it still stung. It still took everyone by surprise. It still made Samuel’s eyes drop to the table. Even Jeonghan fell silent.

“Y/n…” Joshua started hesitantly, but you didn’t let him continue.

“I know everyone’s worried about me, but there’s no need. There’s a few things I need to get done back at Pledis and then I’ll go home and get some rest,” you said firmly. “I’m fine. Really. If I think that I may almost collapse or something again then I will make sure to go home alright? Give me the benefit of the doubt okay?”

“Why are you leaving Pledis?” Jihoon blurted. Everyone looked at him, all with varying levels of surprise settling over their faces. Jihoon was a little surprised too. He hadn’t expected anyone to bring back the topic when you so clearly didn’t want to talk about it, much less himself. “If you’re just going to be working, then why not stay?”

You pressed your lips together hesitantly.

“I just… Need to stay away from the entertainment industry.”

“But you should be going into the entertainment industry,” Jihoon snapped back. Confusion crossed your face and your head tilted slightly to the side.

“What do you mean?” You mumbled.

“Y/n, why aren’t you becoming an idol?” He reiterated. Your otherwise pretty steady expression faltered at the question.

“Jihoon-”

“You write songs, you choreograph to music, you’re a good dancer, gorgeous, charismatic and you’re practically a trainee right now,” Jihoon interrupted. “So why would you leave Pledis unless you were going to some other company to debut as an idol?”

Jihoon had never seen you truly upset. You had such a carefree, easy-going personality that it was hard to get you to the point where you truly seemed like you had lost hope. Aside from that, Jihoon figured that you worked pretty hard to make sure that no one ever saw you at your lower points. You were trying to be a stable point for them after all. Showing that you had your own insecurities that may be similar to theirs, made it seem like you weren’t stable enough for them to dump their worries onto. So Jihoon knew that you would never willingly show the boys just how upset you were at any given moment unless you couldn’t control the feeling yourself.

That was why it hurt him so much to see you like that. Your expression had fallen, your eyelids were heavy over your eyes. You wouldn’t make eye contact with him. You wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. You weren’t about to lie or evade the question or anything of the sort. You were about to tell the truth, what went through your mind every time anyone mentioned the possibility of you being an idol.

“I’m not suited to be an idol,” you mumbled. “So just drop it okay? Even if I were to debut no one would follow me.”

The boys all let the topic physically drop at that. They stayed with you for a few hours and went back to Pledis with you. You stayed a few hours and got what you needed to get done completed and then you went home. The next day you acted like nothing had ever happened, and so did the others but there was a heavy air that Jihoon just couldn’t ignore in the room.

An air that he wouldn’t ignore.

“We have to help y/n debut as an idol,” he said. Chan dropped a plate on the ground, looking at Jihoon with a wide-eyed look.

“Jihoon-” Seungcheol began, but Jihoon didn’t let him continue.

“Don’t say we shouldn’t. Don’t say we can’t. Y/n has done so much for us and she asks for nothing in return. It’s her dream to be an idol. I don’t care what Pledis says, I don’t care what anyone says. She has the talent. She deserves to be out there.”

“Jihoon is right,” Hansol agreed pretty much immediately. “She really wants to be an idol but she would never pursue the career without a nudge. We’re her friends. We should urge her to be what we know she can be.”

“Seungcheol and I have tried to talk her into it-” Doyoon tried to argue.

“Oh, because you can convince y/n to do something when she has already made up her mind on it?”

Doyoon fell silent and Seungkwan crossed his arms over his chest.

“Come on guys, this is the least we can do for her,” he insisted. Samuel sighed, and threw his arm over Dongjin’s shoulders.

“I mean, what would we even do?” He asked. “I want to help her debut but-”

“I have a plan,” Jihoon blurted. Everyone looked at him again, so he cleared his throat unsurely. “Uh, we leak our practice videos. The ones that we took with her in it and then any videos we have of her dancing alone onto the Pledis Youtube channel.”

“We don’t have access to those videos remember. Only y/n and our managers,” Jeonghan reminded with a roll of his eyes.

“So, we distract her,” Seokmin said pointedly. “That’s not too hard.”

“Of course,” Joshua agreed. “We distract Y/n and then a team of us gets on her computer and uploads the videos.”

“We don’t know her computer passcode,” Mingming pointed out. Hansol snickered into his hand.

“It’s 1-1-2-2.”

A number of the boys chuckled; Chan looked confused.

“What does that-”

Hansol interrupted him by nudging him with his elbow and gesturing over to Jihoon.

“It’s Woozi’s birthday,” he explained. Jihoon rolled his eyes.

“Getting off-topic guys,” he mumbled stubbornly. Even Soonyoung snickered at that, but despite laughing, he was still able to stay on-topic.

“We’ll just need to figure out who can distract her,” he stated. “Who’s the one person who can actually distract her long enough for us to upload those videos. It could take an hour just to find them.”

“She’s pretty organized,” Wonwoo piped up. “She keeps everything sorted away into folders. The longest we’ll have to wait is for the actual files to post onto Youtube.

“And we’ll have to keep her phone away from her. She gets notifications whenever Pledis posts anything anywhere,” Mingyu stated softly.

“Kinda gemini for a girl who is like the only one to post on our social media,” he mumbled. Minghao rolled his eyes and poked Jun in the side.

“So, we’re all thinking the same thing, then right?” He asked. They all looked over at him, eyebrows quirked as they waited for him to elaborate. “We need a distraction. The only person who can get her to not worry about not having her phone and laptop on her?”

Minghao looked over at Jihoon with a pointed expression on his face.

“Don’t you guys think it’s about time that Jihoon asked our little mascot on a date?”

Color rose to Jihoon’s cheeks at the accusation and his jaw dropped.

“H-Hey- What-“

“Who else will be able to really distract her?” Seungcheol asked pointedly. “Besides if you don’t ask her out now when will you? After we debut and you’re too busy to take her out on a date or after she leaves Pledis to work all the time?”

Jihoon shot him a glare, but Seungcheol didn’t look apologetic at all. In fact, it was clear none of the boys felt bad for Jihoon. They all just gave him pointedly looks like Jihoon was being the ridiculous one.

Sure, it was all for you, but he wasn’t anywhere near ready to just… Ask you out on a date.

He’d never imagined asking you out this early on. Ever really. Sure, he had to at some point. He knew he liked you, he knew that you would say yes. So… Why was he so afraid to ask you anyways?

“I’ll… Figure something out,” he murmured.

And just like that, you guys got to work.

Plan all in place, all that the guys needed was for you to set your phone out on the table…

Check.

Jihoon smiled at you and grabbed your hand with his to get your attention. It made his heart skip a couple of beats just to look at you. Just to know what he was about to do.

Jumpstart your life. Ask you to be his.

Most of the time people gave their managers cookies or something as a thank you for all their help. Not helped them debut as an idol. There wasn’t really a guideline for this. But still, he noticed the warm look that spread over your face at the contact. It made him a little less nervous. A little less anxious.

The smile that would spread across your lips when you realized what he already had- how many people would truly love to see you on stage where you belonged… that would be worth it.

“Do you mind if I ask you for some help?” He asked nervously. “There was just… Something in my studio…”

He couldn’t get the words out properly. Each word left his mouth with a stutter and he was sure his hand would be trembling if it weren’t for the fact that your hand was in his.

You smiled warmly.

“Yeah, of course,” you stated with a laugh. You didn’t seem suspicious at all about what he might be up to. You were just completely trusting him. “Are you already working on another song? You should relax and just focus on debut. No need to stress yourself out over preparing for your first comeback just yet.”
“I know, I just…” he trailed off. “This couldn’t wait any longer.”

You hummed and got to your feet, letting go of his hand momentarily.

“Well, you know- my time is yours. Lead the way,” you said softly. Jihoon swallowed the lump in his throat and stood up as well.

“Right, it’s nothing special really,” he started to mumble as he led you out of the room. The minute the door closed he could hear the rustle of movement coming from inside. The clock was ticking. Now he just had to buy as much time as he could. This was all up to him.

He led you into the studio and sat you down next to him at the piano.

He had literally nothing to play. Everything he had ever heard, ever written, ever read it all left his mind. He just felt like he was stuck in a room with you with nothing to do.

You were of course, blissfully ignorant of his nerves.

You walked around the room, eyes wide and curious as you wandered over to where Jihoon was standing by the computer. You didn’t say it right away, but Jihoon could tell by the way that you were looking about that you were in a surprisingly good mood.

It calmed his nerves, if only a little bit.

He sat down at his computer and pulled up some of his audio files. He started to mess around in his folders, trying to figure out what he should ask you about.

“Sorry, I think I lost the file,” Jihoon mumbled nervously.

How was he going to distract you for a whole hour? (not that it even had to be that long.) He had nothing to show you- well, not entirely true. He had nothing that he was ready to show you more like. He had all sorts of side projects he was working on. Many songs that he wanted you to hear one day. Many songs that he thought you should hear because they were totally and completely and definitely written for you and about you, and about how confused he was and how completely lost in love he was.

Well lost in you really.

He was so in his head about making sure that everything went well, that it was hard to actually keep everything in check. He kept thinking about whether or not the boys were getting what they needed to get done done or not. How much time he would need to keep you. How much time he would be able to keep you.

He tried to pick up his mouse and move it to a different surface, but his hand was shaking so hard that it made the mouse fall.

“I-”

Before he could say anything more you placed your hand over his. Jihoon looked up at you, surprised to find him smiling at you softly. Like you understood what it was like to be as nervous as he was right then.

“Relax Jihoon, I bet whatever you want to show me is great,” you assured softly. When Jihoon didn’t immediately seemed convinced by your words, you rolled your eyes playfully. “Since when is the big bad Woozi so nervous he shakes? Shouldn’t I be the one who is anxious?”

That at least got a small laugh out of Jihoon. He felt his nose wrinkle and that in itself made color spread to your cheeks.

You however didn’t make any attempt to hide the look. You instead rested your head on your freehand and stared at Jihoon with nothing but utter adoration spread over your lips.

“You’re so cute,” you mumbled. There didn’t seem to be any hesitation in your words. Your lips curled up slightly. “Our cute little-”

Jihoon’s face burned red at your words, so much so that he couldn’t bear to hear you say anymore.

“I’m not cute,” he mumbled. You chuckled, squeezing his hand in yours.

“Then what does that make you?” You asked softly. “y?”

“The iest idol that you’ve ever seen,” Jihoon agreed. You laughed again- and Jihoon laughed with you, unable to help himself. He loved it when you smiled. He loved to see you happy. And your touch… Your hands were so warm in his.

“See? No reason to be so unnerved,” you mumbled softly. “You aren’t stressed over debut or anything are you?”

Jihoon slowly raised his eyes to yours, wondering if you were really asking him why he was so nervous. He felt like it was pretty obvious what he was about to do. Or at least, what he was trying to do. And he found it a little strange that you didn’t really seem to know.

You were so oblivious.

He was trying to ask you out, and you were completely and totally oblivious to it all.

“I’m a little stressed about debut but only because it’s debut,” Jihoon replied. “I… I trust you to make our debut run as smoothly as possible.”

You seemed surprised by those words.

“You… You trust me?” You asked. “I mean, it makes sense but still, you were so adamantly against me at the first that-”

“Yeah, that was just me being stupid,” Jihoon mumbled. “You care about this group. I don’t know why but it’s not hard to tell that you are willing to put your whole life on standby for us.”

“I’m leaving you guys after debut promotions,” you reminded him, turning your gaze away from him. Your fingers loosened slightly, and for a second Jihoon thought you were going to let go of his hand, so in response he tightened his grip on your hand.

“Yeah but you’d come back,” Jihoon responded. “Not if we don’t need you, but if Pledis does something or if our promotions are going poorly… Just if we need you, you would come back and help us.”

“I can’t listen to you guys after I leave Pledis. I probably won’t listen to kpop at all anymore,” you protested adamantly. It made Jihoon roll his eyes.

“You’ll listen. You’ll keep track of every comeback stage, every promotion we do. You’ll plan out events for us, and you will hope that we will follow, because we are your boys, and you won’t let us fail. Even after you leave. You won’t ever let us fail,” Jihoon said confidently.

You looked back up at Jihoon and scrunched your nose slightly.

“How is it that you know me so well?” You asked him. You laughed but it wasn’t a happy laugh. Jihoon could tell you were conflicted. “It took Seungcheol and Doyoon ages to figure me out.”

“Well, I’m not Seungcheol or Doyoon,” Jihoon stated firmly.

“Yeah, you’re Jihoon,” you replied. Your smile spread a little more naturally. “The guy that I have fallen for. Every day these feelings just get more and more powerful, I won’t lie, I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Just…” Jihoon trailed off, not entirely what he was supposed to say to that. “Don’t…”

Your eyebrows raised.

“You telling me not to move on again?” You asked with a wrecked chuckle. “I’m not gonna lie, you make it really hard to not like you when you keep telling me not to move on.”

“Well, that’s why-” Jihoon faltered, suddenly feeling nervous again. “That’s why… The guys said-”

Your other hand enveloped Jihoon’s and he was forced to look at you again. You gave him a soft, watery eyed smile.

“It’s okay Jihoon you don’t need to do this right now,” you mumbled. “I know it feels like you have to rush this, but you don’t need to. Take your time. I’ll wait. Even if I’m not at Pledis, I’m here for you. I’ll always be waiting for you.”

“I promise I won’t make you wait much longer,” Jihoon assured softly, his face still warm. “It’s just… Now isn’t the right time.”

“It’s okay. I’d wait forever for you,” you replied. Before Jihoon could say anymore you got to your feet and brushed off your pants. “Anyways, do you actually wanna show me something? I’m down to listen to what ever beats our Woozi has put together.”

Jihoon frowned after you.

“Why does it feel like you are making fun of me?” He asked. You laughed and rolled your eyes.

“I am doing nothing of the sort,” you said with a laugh.

You started talking again, trying to encourage Jihoon to show you something that he was working on and it made Jihoon laugh a bit to himself. He was starting to wonder who was trying to keep who in this room? Was he, or were you?

-

You guys got back into the room with everyone else and Jihoon knew from the second that he got there that everything had gone well.

Everyone was in various spots in the room, all looking triumphant and happy. Jihoon tried not to smile. At least, something had gone well. You were immediately dragged to the side by Mingming, who started off some sort of question about something or other and as soon as you were out of ear shot Joshua, Samuel, and Seokmin jumped over.

“Well?” Samuel asked excitedly. “Did you do it?”

Jihoon clenched his teeth and looked down at his hands. Suddenly the end of his sleeves were super interesting.

“Uh-”

“Knew he wouldn’t,” Jeonghan said with a sigh. “We got our end of the plan complete.”

“I distracted her, didn’t I?” Jihoon protested. Jeonghan crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

“You were supposed to finally ask her out too,” Seokmin agreed. Jihoon was surprised by how distraught he looked… By how distraught they all looked.

“It wasn’t the right time okay?” Jihoon blurted. “I couldn’t ask her out like that. I was like a fumbling idiot in there!”

“Give him a break,” Joshua said with a sigh. “Can’t force it to happen.”

“Besides,” Hansol pitched in, joining the group by resting his arm on Joshua’s shoulder. “It’ll happen. You guys know how y/n is, and you know how Jihoon is. They’re both idiots they’ll make something happen.”

Even as Hansol spoke, Samuel pouted.

“Still,” he mumbled. “I was so excited.”

Seokmin pouted too and patted the younger boy on the head.

“They’re right,” he mumbled reluctantly. “It’ll happen…”

“Time to start wrapping up kids,” Seungcheol said suddenly, walking across the room from your side of it. He didn’t even have to ask whether or not Jihoon had asked you out or not. Jihoon figured he could tell just from the way that you were acting that he hadn’t. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

-

You weren’t there to wake all the boys up in the morning. That concerned everyone.

While they were hoping you would go quite some time with the video up before you would find out about it, they reasoned that you would discover it pretty fast. You were active on all the forms of social media that the group was using to advertise. You followed every article on Pledis, and every fan account that had popped up since they had begun to put the group together.

You knew everything that happened, and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind when you burst into the studio that day, later than usual, and clearly frantic what the problem was.

“I don’t care that you guys are idols,” you blurted, earning everyone’s attention. “I’m going to kill every last one of you.”

“Wha-” Jeonghan tried to start, feigning innocence. You interrupted him by pointing a finger at him.

“I have been up all night trying to get this situation solved. In hours the video had thousands of views, fan accounts for me have already popped up not just in Korea but in the States and Japan too. There’s even a small hashtag trend on twitter for Seventeen’sBigSister.”

You sat down on the floor of the studio, and it was a sharp enough action that it made everyone notice just how exhausted you looked. Chan was the first one to rush over.

“Hey, take it easy-”

“The company has been yelling at me for hours, they said we were the only ones with access to those tapes- obviously I’m not going to throw you guys under the bus because I’m not an idiot, I know it was you guys, but they are stupid they don’t know. So, we’ve been trying to play recovery-“

“Recovery?” Seungcheol blurted. He made a face. “Why wasn’t I called for this?”

“Because I told them it was too close to debut to bother you with something like this. Their es actually wanted to wake you up with this problem. We should be able to handle problems like that on our own. We are the company after all, you guys are the idols.”

Dooyoon came up behind Seungcheol and patted his shoulder.

“What they did to you was wrong,” he said softly. You laughed and rolled your eyes but then you seemed to remember that you were mad- and mad for a reason.

“How could you guys upload those videos of me? I told you I’m not cut out to be an idol,” you said sternly. “And how did you get that video of me singing and dancing to Suzy’s Sober. And how dare you upload it.”

While Jihoon was confused by that, you clearly had no question as to who had chosen to upload that particular video because you looked pointedly at Hansol. He shrugged.

“I just took a glance over your videos. It’s a good cover.”

“I never thought anyone would see it,” you hissed pointedly, your face a bright red.  “No one was supposed to see any of it. Whose idea was this?! Seungcheol? Seungkwan? Joshua?!”
Everyone pointed all at the same time. For a very brief second, Jihoon thought maybe they were protecting him.

But then he saw the tips of their fingers, and your surprised expression and he knew he was screwed.

“I-”

“You betrayed me,” you blurted suddenly. “I trusted you!”

Jihoon could tell you weren’t as made as you were trying to seem. It was easy to pick out that you were more confused than anything else. Confused with what you wanted in life. Confused with whether or not you wanted this to blow over.

“You have fans, y/n.”

You stopped speaking, your jaw hanging open and your finger posed in midair. You looked over at Jihoon dumbly, looking like he had just said something unthinkable. He supposed, maybe in your world he had.

“You have hundreds of fans after your video has been up for less than 24 hours. You took the kpop world by storm, and you haven’t even debuted. That’s how talented you are,” he said firmly. He stepped forward, and without asking if it was okay or anything, he clasped your hand with his own, forcing you to hold his intense gaze. “I know you don’t like it when others do things for you, but for once let us do something for you. You deserve this. You deserve to be an idol. You should be out there performing a debut stage with us.”

“But-”

“You do everything for us,” Chan agreed, stepping up as well. “You watch our health, you keep us fed, you watch our finances, our social media. And compared, we do nothing for you.”

“It’s my job to do all that for you,” you insisted weakly, barely able to turn your gaze from Jihoon’s.

“You don’t even get paid to do what you do,” Samuel said with a roll of his eyes. “You do everything you do for us solely out of the kindness of your heart.”

“But-”

“But nothing!” Seungcheol interrupted firmly. He stepped forward, and set his hand on Samuel’s head, who pouted at the degrading action. “It’s your dream to be a musical artist, and most importantly you are good at it. The proof is in the pudding.”

You looked like you desperately wanted to argue with everyone but knew that there was no point in doing so. Your hands squeezed Jihoon’s nervously, and you turned your eyes back to him, practically pleading to have someone on your side.

“I-” You hesitated briefly. “I’m scared.”

“What do you always tell us when we say that we are scared?” Hansol asked, coming up behind you. You didn’t break your gaze with Jihoon, so he decided to fill in the blanks.

“We all get scared from time to time. The thing that sets you apart from a coward, is that you get back up and you keep trying,” he quoted softly. You wrinkled your nose, your eyes fluttering shut in annoyance.

“God, do I really sound like that?” You mumbled. Nobody missed a beat. Everyone in the room responded: “Yes” in complete unison. “Wow, I’m pretentious.”

Jihoon squeezed your hands in order to get your attention back on him, and he crinkled his nose slightly.

“Well? You’ll do it right? You’ll become an idol?” He asked softly. You sighed.

“Well, there’s still things we have to consider,” you stated. “I have to finish a debut song and mini album, and first I need to make sure you guys debut-”

“Debut at the same time as us,” Mingyu suggested. “Share stages with us.”

“Absolutely not-” You began to say, but you stopped when Soonyoung hit your arm lightly.

“Absolutely yes. Then we can all encourage one another at the same times. Experience all of our firsts together- always be right next to one another to support,” he stated firmly.

“Do you guys even know how much planning goes into a debut?” You blurted. “I can’t plan one in this little amount of time.”

“We all practice together,” Seungkwan stated confidently. “We all agreed from day one, right? We’re all in this together? We’ll all help you y/n. The same way you’ve helped us. If all 18 of us work together-”

“Then nothing can stop us,” you finished with a sigh. “Honestly, every quote I make is so annoying, why do you guys listen to me?”

“That’s what I keep saying,” Jeonghan mumbled softly. Doyoon cut him a glare, and he shot him an innocent smile in response.

“Does this mean you’re in?” Doyoon asked you after a minute. His eyes sparkling with excitement. You sighed, lowering your eyes to Jihoon’s hands intertwined with yours. You stared blankly at the tangle of fingers for a moment, before finally a small smile crossed your lips.

“What would my life be without you idiots there to throw a wrench into my plans? I’m in,” you agreed with a short laugh.

In all the excitement, you got torn away from Jihoon, practically being smothered by all the members of the boy group. Jihoon just watched with an amused smile on his face, one that Wonwoo seemed to catch. He looked away from all the commotion and placed a hand on his hip.

“One more thing to do now,” he stated softly.

Jihoon’s eyes drifted over to you.

One more thing to do.