“Worry about your character not your reputation because your character is who you are, your reputation is what other people think you are."

~Unknown

The security crew escorted Minah and her clan out the back. The remaining fans eventually drifted away as well, out the front doors and into the late afternoon sun. The stage decorations were gone now, along with the dazzling spotlights and elaborate range of colorful props. What remained of the gym was what it had been before the idols had taken refuge; a bare wooden floor, worn basketball nets, and dirty bleachers.

The BTOB members stood where the stage had been, under the electronic scoreboard.

“You were great. That was great. Wow. Just. Wow.” Sungjae was beyond overjoyed, and he stammered with excitement.

Standing beside him, the sides of Minhyuk’s lips reached from ear to ear, and his eyes sparkled like diamonds in the light. This Minhyuk was so different than the one who had awkwardly rehearsed with Rainie before. She wondered if he might be bipolar. Or maybe just the slightest bit more grown up. Rainie preferred the latter, seeing as it had better connotations, and was more likely to be true.

What did it take to change so drastically like this? From the sparse bit of gossip Peniel had babbled about earlier, she could collect that Minhyuk was generally a nice person to be around; hardworking and friendly. It wasn’t that he had acted in any way to the contrary, but rather, he acted exactly following those guidelines. He did work hard. And he was friendly, that much was clear as day. Yet he didn’t really seem to want to bring himself past these limits, choosing to shy away from things that didn’t seem all that important.

Like girls. The way Minhyuk’s mood had shifted earlier, Rainie could only narrow his reaction down to seeing her gender in a new light. Peniel had mentioned earlier that because Minhyuk appeared charismatic, girls would often treat him with what they believed to be a similar sort of attitude, giving him the cold shoulder and playing hard-to-get. Peniel also said something about how Minhyuk was always the one who got dropped by his straight-faced girlfriends. Peniel had even called him a silly name, which Rainie hadn’t taken too seriously before. She racked her brain for it as Sungjae continued his gleeful conversing.  

“Hey, SingleManHyuk, what got to you earlier? I thought you had your whole ‘all the single ladies’ mantra-thing going on.” Peniel called from several feet away. He sounded impressed.

Minhyuk breathed heavily, and looked oddly like a raging baby bull.

“I told you not to call me that!” He whined, barely hiding his cheeky smile.

“I think it suits you quite nicely.” Hyungsik said cheerily.

He placed a brotherly arm around Minhyuk who proceeded to tickle his side until he fell to the ground in a fit of laughter. Eunkwang realized he needed to the act the part of the responsible leader, and tried to intervene and pull them apart. His efforts proved useless when they yanked him into the heap as well.

“I’m just glad to see you enjoying yourself again, Rainie-ah.” Sungjae sighed happily.

“I do feel better.” Rainie admitted with a smile. “It wasn’t half as bad as I thought it’d be.”

“You looked like your were having a great time out there. I was getting jealous, to be honest.” Peniel said.

“You and Minah looked like you were having fun too.” Rainie answered with a tinge of coldness.  

She had no right to feel so possessive, and she knew it, but her normal ability to hide her feelings was working to no extent.

“You’re not jealous of me, now are you?” Peniel laughed, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Of course not!”

“Raaaaineeee.”

“I was not jealous! I was very, very, not jealous!” Rainie declared. She jabbed her finger into the air for emphasis.

Teardrops began forming at the corners of Peniel’s closed eyes, and doubled with his arm tightly wrapped around his cramping stomach, he looked like he was having a seizure.

“Snap out of it, you great baboon.” Sungjae walloped Peniel over the head.

Sungjae’s beating had absolutely no effect on him. Rainie looked down shyly, surprised by herself. She’d never been much of an aegyo person, so this was a first, even for her.  

“Here, I find that this always helps.” A boy who Rainie vaguely remembered as Ilhoon said, and with that he slammed a baseball cap onto Peniel’s head and slid it around a couple times for good measure.

Peniel’s die-hard laughing ceased immediately. “NOO!! You ruined my hair again!” he shrieked like an ahjumma who’d lost her curlers.

Jumping to his feet, he ran after the boy, who sprinted away, his red-brown hair bouncing merrily on top of his head.

“Ohoho, Ilhoon’s gonna get it.” Sungjae giggled.  

Evidently the sight of Peniel and Ilhoon chasing each other like a married couple in a rom-com tickled Sungjae pink.

The room swirled around Rainie like a calm summer wind, caressing her with soft hands. Rainie had decided before that she didn’t need friends, that all they’d do was hurt and use her. Now, as she stood watching these old strangers having the time of their lives, she realized just how much she could be wrong. Maybe it wasn’t her schoolmates who made her friendless and lonely. Maybe it was only her lack of confidence and self worth.

Rays of crimson bore down from the setting sun outside the large windows, forming a ring of heavenly light around the happy group. Rushing past, Peniel saw that above Rainie, a halo of gold encircled her as well.

The spell was only slightly broken by Eunkwang and Hyungsik dancing after Minhyuk, singing, “If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it, oh oh oh!”