[At the Trainee Dorms]
Jin-ae was lying on her bed, listening to music and reading a book. "He was always caught in weird situations by her and never got the chance to explain. Troubled by that, he wasn't able to realize that those awkward moments of his were what caught her interest and gave him an endearing appearance," she read aloud.
What does that even mean? She's starting to like him because he entertains her? That seems...ah that reminds me. Changmin-sunbae keeps acting funny but then again he is trying to seduce me, now isn't he? I wonder...why does my opinion matter anyway? It normally doesn't. He should be more like others and learn to just ignore me.
She heard the door swing open and Hyesung walked in also listening to music but singing along and out loud too. Speaking of people that don't know how to just let me be...
"Jinae~ what are you doing? What book is this? The cover looks boring. How could you read it? Ack, look at the description. It doesn't seem fun. We should do something together, huh? What do you say?"
"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover. The description is incomplete. You didn't read inside the flap to finish it and I'm reading so go do something on your own."
"Aish, you're such a buzzkill." Hyesung pouted and sat down at the desk across from my bed. She sighed and spun around in the chair. "You know...we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover but there is a purpose in it being there. Just like if someone smiles, it doesn't mean that they're actually happy but, despite that, they smiled for a reason right? And intuition about something even if it's based on superficial factors can be right too. A smile can mean someone is happy too."
I looked over at her and she simply smiled at me before standing up abruptly and announcing that she was going to take a shower since there was nothing to do. I don't understand her. Not one bit but what she said did have some value to it, I suppose.
She was also right about the book. I was starting to lose interest. What to do now...?
I guess I could go practice some more...
[In the SM Building]
Jinae was practicing the songs from the last dance workshop she went too. If one single move wasn't executed perfectly, she would re-do the eight-count for that step at least a hundred times before starting the song all over again. The sweat dripping all over her body didn't bother her on bit. Instead it made her feel accomplished and motivated her to continue on passionately.
Not too far from the practice room where Jinae was, Changmin was singing his heart out. He tried to sing out the highest notes he could and even then he wasn't satisfied. He wanted to push himself further and further. His breathing started to unsteady after singing for so long but he couldn't stop now, not when he was starting to feel like he was making some progress. Holding each note longer and longer until he reached his breath's limit. Looking at his reflection in the studio mirror, Changmin blew his bangs out of his face and changed songs. "One more time."
"One more time," Jinae had told herself while lying down on the dance floor. She had made no mistakes going through the whole set from the workshop but she still had to keep going.
In the hallways of the floor Jinae and Changmin were practicing on, Yunho was walking around looking for Changmin. "He didn't even eat his dinner earlier..." he muttered to himself. "Weird..."
He heard music and looked inside one of the rooms. "Who's in here? Ah...it's the y challenge girl. She's pretty good...how come I haven't seen her dance before? Don't they normally have the best trainees as back-up dancers?"
Jinae finished the set "one more time" as she had said and dabbed at the sweat on her forehead as she looked towards the door. "You can come out of hiding now if you'd like."
Yunho's eyes widened in shock. "You knew I was there?"
"I heard my breathing."
"My breathing?!"
She chuckled, "I have really good hearing and when I focus on the beat I can hear almost anything."
"Oh...that's a pretty incredible ability then if you were able to hear my breathing."
"Breathing is extremely important in dance."
"It's important in singing too."
She smiled politely, looking down. "Yes, it is."
"So...did you choreograph that yourself?"
"No, I did not. It was from a recent dance workshop."
"Oh, I see..." Yunho looked around the room anxiously. "Would you...mind showing me again? It looked fun."
"Really?" this time, Jinae's eyes widened in shock. "If you'd like, I suppose I could."
"I'd like to! Please teach me."
The determined and excited look in Yunho's eyes made Jinae want to smile but she held it back. "Okay, first is..."
An hour or so later, Changmin had finally called it a night for himself and was eating snacks as he headed to the elevator. He distinctly heard Yunho's laugh coming from one of the dance rooms and raised his eyebrow, "I thought Yunho-hyung went home hours ago. What's he doing?"
"I don't understand what you find so funny." Changmin swore he recognized the voice.
"I know you don't and I think that makes it funnier," Yunho said, finally taking a break from laughing.
Changmin peeked inside the room and his jaw dropped. "Jinae?!" he whisper-yelled.
She sighed, "why do so many people say that to me?"
Yunho smiled and Jinae made herself look away. "I think it's better that you don't understand. I think you would lose some of your charm that way."
"That's not possible."
"Why not?"
"I have no charm to lose."
He laughed again, "see? That's exactly what I mean."
"What?"
"Nothing. Let's just go through it again."
"Okay."
Changmin watched them dance and was amazed. He had always known Yunho's abilities but he had no idea that Jinae could dance also. Sure,she's a trainee so she must have some talent but Changmin had never really thought about it. "They match well," he muttered as he watched them dance together.
'Why...why does it bother me to see them get along?' he asked himself as he got onto the elevator. 'It's not as if she's mine or something. I only want to prove to her that I'm y. Nothing more, right? Ah, I got it! It bothers me because if she's involved with Yunho-hyung, it makes it weird that I'm trying to appeal to her. Yeah ...that's it, right? Right?'
The next morning, Changmin was sitting at a table in a random room with his head down. "Headache, please go away! Aish...so annoying...what did I do to deserve this?!"
"Maybe you stalked someone?" someone said while walking into the room.
"Jinae!"
"Yes? You didn't have to shout my name. I'm standing two feet away from you after all. Also, wouldn't yelling make your headache worse? That is, if you really have one."
"I really do have a headache and I yelled your name because...well just because."
"Do some people really accept 'just because' as a valid answer or are you the only one that finds it sufficient enough?"
"Depends on the person. It's not 'sufficient enough' for you though, I'm guessing."
"Your guess is correct but I will accept it for now since you said you have a headache. No point in adding onto your pain."
"Thanks...I think."
"You're welcome."
Changmin laid his head back down and Jinae took a seat at a table adjacent from his. He watched her small gaps in his hair. 'I guess it's a good thing I didn't fix it this morning.'
Jinae was silently reading a book and listening to music on her iPod. He mentally sighed thinking that she doesn't even care that he's there and hurting. 'I guess I shouldn't expect much...not after she's spend some time with Yunho-hyung...people always prefer Yunho-hyung over me. Actually, she's already said it before.'
[Flashback]
Hyesung smirked. "I catch her watching Yunho videos all the time. She's so cute and funny!"
"Aww, I want to see," Minah whined. "Not fair! You always catch her doing those kinds of things."
"Then you should spy on her with me."
"No thanks."
"Then you miss out."
Xin Yi chuckled at her friends, "why not record her?"
"What do she do that's so 'cute and funny' anyway?" Bong Cha asked.
"She makes these cute little faces and even blushes when Yunho-sunbae's on screen! She's a fangirl in hiding. I swear!"
"I am not!" Jinae hid her face. "I just like his dancing."
"What about Changmin-sunbae?"
"What about him?"
"He's also in TVXQ. Do you like him?"
"No."
[End of Flashback]
Changmin was brought back to the present when he felt something being placed in front of him. He sat up immediately and looked up at Jinae, who was looking right back at him. "I don't know if you can take this but if you can, here." She handed him some ibuprofen and he continued looking at her confused.
Jinae exhaled sharply and pushed a water bottle closer to him. "This is just in case you don't have water to take the ibuprofen with. Also, people can get headaches from being dehydrated so it might help." Still not a word from Changmin. "That's all," she said in order to excuse herself and went back to her seat.
Smiling, Changmin stared at the ibuprofen before taking it. As he drank from the water bottle Jinae gave him, Changmin thought 'maybe it would be okay not to give up for now...바보처럼 (like a fool).'
A/N: Hello~ sorry it's been so long! T.T I've been so stuck on this story...writing a Changmin story since he's not my bias is harder than I thought hehe ^^ I've been trying to look at pictures and videos of him to see if I can feel more inspired but it backfires and makes me wanna write my other stories instead XD I might edit this chapter as well since the ending doesn't seem quite right to me but I wanted to put this up for now to let you guys know I'm still writing this! As slow as I am~ heh ^^; thanks for reading~! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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