Krystal stretched and waited a couple of seconds before stretching her arms out. She danced, for hours, focusing only on herself, always staring at the mirror in front of her. Her hair, tied in a messy ponytail, bounced as she moved and occasionally brushed her cheeks. The music drawled on and on and filled her mind, which was already full of distant but painful memories.

                It was only when the lights suddenly turned off in the practice room that Krystal stopped. Startled by the sudden darkness, she fell on the floor ungracefully, landing on her side. Wincing in pain, she let out a frustrated noise. In a moment, the lights were back on again and Krystal blinked several times, her vision adjusting. A manly figure gripped her arms and heaved her back on her feet.

                “Oh god, sorry,” Krystal recognized the deep voice of Minho and stiffened. Being pressed against Minho’s chest only for three seconds was enough to remind her of the hug he had given her earlier today. Krystal felt her cheeks burn.

                Suddenly feeling incredibly awkward, she fidgeted, which was the only thing she could do while in Minho’s grasp. She always knew how strong he was, according to his other members. When Minho didn’t respond, she fidgeted again.

                “Uh, you can let go now.”

                “Oh, um, yeah, right. Sorry.”

                When Krystal finally stepped a big step away from Minho, she sighed with relief. Noticing that the music was still playing and making the moment more awkward, she hurried to turn it off, fumbling for the right button to press.

                But then when the music was turned off, it left the room too quiet. Krystal scrunched her eyes, frazzled.

                “Hey, you okay?” Minho suddenly spoke, and Krystal felt him looking at her with concern.

                “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

                “Oh, okay.”

                “Do you want water?”

                “Sure.”

                Their conversation was embarrassingly short and weird, and Krystal knew that. After handing him a cup of water, her other hand holding one for herself, they both just sat on the floor, leaning against the mirrored wall, sipping their water.

                “Why are you here?” Minho spoke, obvious that he was trying to start a new conversation. Krystal sighed.

                “I needed to get away from Victoria and the other members’ fussing. So, I came here as soon as I had the chance.”

                “Oh, cool.”

                “Yeah, I guess.”

                Krystal pursed her lips, and just as she was about to speak again, Minho beat her to it.

                “I didn’t mean to, you know, turn off the lights all of a sudden. I mean, I did, but not like in a funny way. Well, uh, I was trying to be funny but I didn’t mean to, um, make you fall and all.”

                “It’s okay,” Krystal said it to sound like a statement, but the way she said made it feel like a question. Minho just nodded to her reply.

                “Thanks for helping me up, I guess,” Krystal coughed.

                “No problem.”

                Krystal bit her lip and cleared , running her fingers nervously through her hair. She opened , then closed it, then opened it again, a sound finally coming out.

                “And thanks for…hugging me and the whole ‘crying in a dark place’ thing,” Krystal relaxed after it was finally said, and loosened the pressure on her shoulders. “It actually did make me feel better.”

                “Really?”

                “I appreciated it,” Krystal scratched her head and let out a faltering laugh, an awkward laugh. She her lips.

                “Wow,” Minho nodded his head in thought.

                “What?”

                “I never thought I’d see the day when Krystal Jung would thank me for something, twice,” Minho laughed, a real laugh. “This is pretty legit.”

                Krystal looked at him, eyebrows raised. Finally, she was starting to feel more like her old self, the sly Krystal who wasn’t anything like the Krystal she was 30 seconds ago.

                “Do you want me to take them both back? Because I could, you know,” Krystal smiled, leaning closer to stick her tongue out at him. She twirled her tiny paper cup in her hands.

                Then, she saw Minho blush.

                It was an obvious blush, and Krystal easily noticed how pink and red his cheeks got. Just seeing that, she drew back quickly, and found herself blushing, too.

                God, what is wrong with you today, Krystal? Snap out of it. This is nothing like you. Stop it. Don’t even think it.

                For a minute after another, none of them spoke. Both of their paper cups were empty of water, but both kept on raising them to their lips, pretending that it was still full of water. Anything they could think of that would help them with the awkwardness, they did.

                It was only when Minho attempted to stretch his legs that broke the silence. Krystal, at first, had just watched Minho as he stretched out his legs and bended forward to touch his toes with his fingers. She uncrossed her own legs and stretched them out. For a while, she looked back and forth at her legs and his, a small smile appearing on her face. Giggles turned into laughter, which she tried to muffle with her sleeve.

                Minho, startled at the sudden noises, looked up. His bewildered look made Krystal crack up more.

                “What?” Minho widened his eyes. “What’s so funny?”

                She tried to gasp for air, but she couldn’t stop laughing. Her sides started to hurt and she could feel her ear’s tearing and on the verge of crying. She just pointed at her legs and his legs and his expression before laughing hard again.

                 Krystal silently mouthed words, trying to explain, but it just made her crack up more. Minho started to smile, and in a short time, he was also laughing. Together, they were on the floor, rolling around in laughter, kicking their legs to just make it harder to stop.

                “Oh my god,” Krystal choked out, as soon as their laughter died down to a minimum. They were still giggling.

                “Why did we even start laughing in the first place?” Minho breathlessly asked, stretched on the floor.

                “Your legs were funny.”

                “Oh, is that so? Well, your legs are funnier-“

                Minho’s voice faltered when he realized how close he was to Krystal. His face was only centimeters away from Krystal’s.

                “How did I get here?” Minho stuttered, mumbling, not realizing only until seconds later that he said his thoughts out loud.

                Krystal blushed and he blushed and for a moment, they didn’t move. Minho took in a deep breath and moved his head forward, to the point where their noses were brushing. Krystal’s eyes were closed and he was about to close his when Krystal suddenly flashed her eyes open. Eyes wide and mouth open as well, she pushed him back, weakly but enough to make him come back to his senses and back away.

                Krystal got up, and frantically looked around. She was rocking on her heels and she avoided his gaze.

                “Uh, I’m busy. I just remembered that I have to eat dinner, yeah. Victoria-unni made…uh yeah. So, see you around.”

                Before he could reply or react, Krystal dashed off, almost breaking through the door. Minho was left leaning against the mirror, his cheeks still bright pink from the almost kiss. After processing what she just said, he rested his face on one hand, chuckling softly.

                “Its 4 pm,” Minho smiled lightly to himself, ruffling his already messy hair. Picking his phone up, he got up to leave, lingering. Silly girl.”