Lee Sooman was still watching me curiously as I set my bag of necessities in the corner of the practice room, also feeling all of the other boys’ eyes boring into my form. I joined the group, hands at my sides for a quick respectful bow. “Good morning, sunbaenim.”

The chairman of SM gave me a nod of acknowledgement before picking up right where he left before. “Fantastic, everyone is here now. As I was saying, the schedule change might be a weird change to some of you, might be a relief, I don’t know. But we’ve put you five together as an… early stage, I suppose.”

He paused, and I looked to my right, making eye contact with a boy who looked a little younger than me, his cheeks chubby and his hair cropped rather short. He shrugged at me, and I returned the gesture as Lee Sooman spoke again.

“I’m sure most of you have figured out what’s going on, and are probably wondering why when the longest trainer has been at it for almost eight months.” Me, obviously. “It’s a good question, and I’m here to answer it. This is a test of readiness. Of how much you want it.”

I slowly caught on, a hit of realization smacking me across the cheek.

I might debut with these people.

I might become an idol.

I just might not regret this anymore.

“Your instructor should be in here in a few minutes for your first dance lesson together. I expect great things from you five boys.” With a smirk, he nodded to us and walked out. In sync, we bowed and bid him goodbye, but he didn’t look back.

When the door shut with a click, there was instant cheering. The little boy I had made eye contact with was awkward among the other three, who were obviously friends ahead of this, and waddled over to me, sticking his hand out for me to shake. “My name is Park Kwangbae,” he mumbled, thick glasses clouding his onyx colored irises.

I shook it. “Do Kyungsoo. How old are you, Kwangbae-sshi?”

“Sixteen,” he admitted shyly. “I’m the youngest one in here.”

“Sixteen, eh? I already have a little dongsaeng,” I teased, ruffling his short-haired head and making him giggle lightly. His voice was high pitched, like he hadn’t aged far yet. “How long have you been training, little dongsaeng?”

“Six months, big hyung,” he shot back, making me laugh and put an arm around his shoulder. We had barely met, and we were already friends. “What about you, big hyung?”

“Almost eight months. I’m the farthest one along, I think,” I muttered, watching the other three move to go talk and lean against the mirror-coated walls.

Kwangbae sighed. “I can’t believe I could debut. It’s so weird to think about. I mean, it’s the ultimate dream to become an idol when you come here, but when it actually happens… it’s overwhelming.”

I smiled. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, little dongsaeng. This is just an experiment.”

He shrugged right as the door bust open, revealing a different dance instructor than any of us had had before. We bowed respectfully, but he just rolled his eyes. “Let’s get started. Who’s the best dancer in here?”

No one raised their hand. He rolled his eyes once again. “Don’t stare at me like you can’t speak. I asked you morons a question. Who is the best dancer in this room?” he growled, scaring all of us. I was scared to open my mouth, in fear that he would swallow me in screams.

Kwangbae suddenly raised his hand. Shocked, I turned to look at him, but he ignored me, never taking his gaze off of the instructor, who sighed. “Finally. You think you’re the best, tiny one?”

“N-No, sunbaenim. I was just going to say… we’ve never really seen each other dance, so we can’t tell who’s the best… sir,” he added with a flinch, afraid of being  yelled at once more by the intimidating man glaring at him.

He pursed his lips. “Very well. You there,” he barked, his finger pointed right at my sternum. The other four boys turned to stare at me as the instructor stared me down. “You look lean and like you know what you’re doing. Why don’t you start off the first formation?”

Voice shaking, I nodded. “Y-Yes, sunbaenim,” I accidentally stuttered, moving to the front and secretly smiling under my breath as he arranged everyone else.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

~*~

The first dance practice was harder than predicted on my part. Afterwards, all of us were panting, but we were definitely satisfied. I bid my goodbye to everyone, especially Kwangbae, before leaving the room and traveling to the lower room to find Jongin.

It wasn’t hard.

I bumped right into him when I turned a corner.

I staggered against his strong form, and he calmly grabbed my shaken body, laughing and pulling me into a hug. “Did I startle you, princess? I’m sorry.”

“Shut up,” I shot back, pulling away. “How was your singing class?”

“Good, actually. There wasn’t anything really hard about it. Judging by the amount of sweat dripping through your hair, though, I’m guessing your dancing class was hard?”

“Not really. The teacher was just grilling us because—“

I quickly realized what I was about to say.

I couldn’t tell him.

I trusted him with my life, but I just couldn’t.

Not yet.

His eyes pierced mine, his eyebrows raised in confusion. “Because…?” He grabbed my hands, swinging them lightly.

“Oh, um…” I panicked, coming up with something. “Because it’s more advanced!”

“Oh.” Jongin still looked at me weird. “I guess that makes sense. Anyway, what do you want for lunch? Yours can be heavy, but mine still is light because I have dancing right after.”

“Yeah. Um, how about we just go walk around and see what looks good?”

Jongin smiled at me warmly, letting one hand go and keeping the other in mine as we left the SM building for some lunch. In my head, though, my heart begged to tell him.

My mind wouldn’t.

~*~

That night, I walked inside my apartment alone, my headphones resting tightly over my ears, blasting music into my eardrums. Jongin had taken the car, but I decided to stay after, so I had the fun time of walking home in the cold of the night. Sometimes it would be vice versa, so whoever went home first got to take the car.

After the key under the doormat was put to use, I pushed the door open, enjoying the new warmth of the air on my skin as I slipped off my shoes and shut the door. “Jongin?”

“In the bedroom, baby,” he called back. I sighed, removing my jacket and shuffling to the bedroom, finding Jongin laying with a blanket over his lower half, his torso bare. He barely watched as I climbed into bed next to him, folding into his arms like I usually did.

This was something that normally happened.

“So do you know what the deal with your classes is yet?” he mumbled, kissing my hair.

“What do you mean?” I sighed, melting into his hold.

“Well, I doubt it’s an actual class with just five people in it… something’s going on and you’re not telling me, right? Do you want to keep it from me or something?”

I sighed, giving up. “I would rather.”

“I can handle it…” he mumbled.

“Later, Jongin.”

“Why?!” he cried out, startling me and pulling out of our hold. “Why can’t I know? I’m the last person on this planet that you would put all of your trust and love into, so why the hell do you have to keep it from me?!” he screamed. I was stunned. He had never cracked this easily.

I was silent for a second, trying to regather my thoughts.

Finally, I did. “See… this is why I can’t tell you.” I stood up from the bed and slammed the bedroom door shut, not able to face his expression any longer.

I put my shoes back on and left.

If he was going to be desperate for answers, he had to work a lot harder.

~*~

My chapters are slowly getting shorter and shorter OTL D: I decided to post this really quick because I'll be exhausted after school for the next couple weeks, and I'm sorry it's short. This sequel will probably only have twelve chapters at most.

Well, anyway, thanks for reading!

Bye! <3