Chapter Two Recap:

 

Three years has passed ever since I passed my solo assessment. There are already countless time when I faced the assessment day without her and her bandmates and her help anymore, though sometimes I still receive her and her bandmates advices. It was only during time like this that we spent the day with only the two of us.

 

We would just stay in the recording room, choosing songs over songs, rewriting lyrics and re-arranging music, joking around, eating meals together and then went back to the dorm together. But now I have my own groupmates, and I no longer live in the same dorm with her. And truthfully, I’m missing the past days when we could just easily spend a lot of time together so much.

 

During those times that I missed the past so much that I thought I should just give up on chasing her, but then again, she always come back to this underground level room to greet me. And that act alone, stopped me from give up on chasing her.

 

 

Chapter Three:

 

“Because you care for me”

 

As a trainee who's hopelessly in love with his fellow trainee-friend-turne-hottest-and-most-likeable idol friend, spending short time like this with her already makes me happy. It might be not much, but I'm enjoying every single seconds, every single miutes, every single hour that I got to spend with her considering just how busy she is with her schedule and school and how I'm dedicating more than half of my life training to be an idol.

 

It might be not much as the time I spent with her was only spent by talking about songs or about song arrangements, joking around and having either breakfast, lunch, or dinner together compared to how normal guys spent their free time flirting all the way with their crush, or how junior high school spends their time on a date with their girlfriend. But I'm pretty satisfied with our current condition since I'm in a one sided love with the current hottest ido in the industryl; who is also, impossible to attain. Spending my free time with her as a friend is the only thing that I could ever ask. I couldn't ask for more, and to be honest, even when I want more than it, I'm just not brave enough to ask for it.

 

“SooAh, I’ll be going to the security room first.” I said as we walked out of the pratice room.

 

"Sure, I'll come with you,” she said cheerfully as she skipped along towards the security room with me.

 

I stopped walking, turned to her to usher her to go to the elevator and said, "No, it's fine. You should wait for me at the lobby."

 

"Eyy, what are you saying? I'm coming with you," she said as she turned back; and this time pushed me towards the security room.

 

It began into a game of pushing each other towards the other ends as I lightly pushed her towards the elevator and her pushing me towards the security room. Then I stopped as I realized something.

 

"..."

 

I stopped ushering her and let SooAh pushed me towards the security room. Without turning towards her, I called her name,

“SooAh-yah”

 

"What?" She asked with her hands still on my shoulders, trying to push me back to the security room.

 

"... Are you scared?" I asked as I turned back to face her.

 

I could see how her face turned red by my question, and then she abruptly faced downwards with slight blush can be still seen on her cheeks.

 

"Wha! What kind of nonsense are you talking about! O-Of course I’m not!” she said in a flustered way.

 

I chuckled as I could still see her flustered face which was halfway facing downwards while taking some glances towards me.

 

“You’re lying. I know you’re scared, right?”

 

“Sa-Says who!”

 

“I said it.”

 

As she can’t avoid my question anymore, I pulled her with me towards the security room, and I then said,

 

“Well, you can always say that you’re scared. It’s normal anyway for anyone to be scared in the middle of the night like this.”

 

“But you don’t feel scared, right? I think it’s only me that’s scared of being in the middle of the night like this,” she then said as we continued walking towards the security room.

 

“Says who?”

 

“I said. I mean, most people are used to being alone during in the middle of the night. I mean, for most people, staying awake and still loitering around the neighborhood around 12AM is kinda normal because most adults spent their night drinking”

“But we’re talking about you, the girl who sleeps really early.”

 

“Well.. It’s true.. But-”

 

“No buts. It’s normal to feel scared for being alone in the middle of the night. And yes, there are dangerous things that might happen if I let you stay alone, so let’s go to the security room together, shall we?” I said as I smiled at her.

 

The hallway in the basement was empty, it was quiet and it gives off a cold, scary atmosphere, but the security room wasn’t far and security ahjussis are still patrolling around the company building. As soon as we reached the security room, we were greeted by the ahjussi; who is staying at the room.

 

“Oh. Hanbin-ah, and look who we have here, little SooAh! Are you accompanying Hanbin again tonight?” asked ahjussi.

 

“Yes! I waited for him today too since everyone has went back to the dorm, and I was left here alone with Hanbin! I have no one to send me home until Hanbin decides to go home!” she pouted.

“Yah, I thought you were sincerely waiting for me!” I said.

 

“Eyy, you know I was just teasing you, Hanbin-ah! Of course I really really sincerely want to go home with you today, not because everyone left me today!” she said as she poked my cheeks.

 

“Aigoo, you two are so cute when you guys are flirting with each other. It makes me wants to go back to my younger days. Anyway, a girl like you shouldn’t really go home alone at this time. Hopefully on the next time you wait for Hanbin to go home, Hanbin won’t have to stay too late at the company. Hanbin you too, you shouldn’t always stay at the company until it was really late, okay? We, the security guards are starting to get worried that you might collapse if you stay at the company until it was really really late on every single day.”

 

“Arasso ahjussi. I’ll try to go home earlier starting on tomorrow,” I said to him.

 

“Now then, off you two. It’s late already and kids like you two shouldn’t be loitering around the city in the middle of the night like this. Go home safely, okay kids?”

 

We then both bowed and bid goodbye to the security guards and walked outwards the company building.

“Do you want to stop by somewhere first?” I said as we walked out from the company building.

 

“Well, I don’t have anything that I want to buy right now, but let’s see if there something along the way,” she said as we walked downwards the road.

 

SooAh and I don’t live exactly in the same dorm. SooAh have her own dorm, which is actually a house rather than an apartment. I live in an apartment not too far from hers, and to go to her dorm, it only takes about 20 minutes by walk and 10 minutes to go to my dorm by her dorm. It wasn’t exactly far, so we like to just walk rather than take any public transportation, and it also means that I get to spend more time with her.

 

As we walked down the road, I realize that SooAh has been rubbing her hands all the way we walk and her nose has turned red. Fortunately, we were reaching a mini mart near our company. We’re a usual customer of the mini mart since it’s near our company, and we often buy snacks and food from there when we’re bored with the canteen’s food. The staffs there are familiar with us and really close with us.

 

Realizing that SooAh seems to be feeling cold, I pulled her inside the mini mart and went towards the hot drinks section with her.

After the cup was filled, I gave her the hot chocolate and made one for myself too before going to the cashier to pay. When we reached the cashier, the staff recognized us and greeted us cheerfully.

 

“Look who we have here! It’s SooAh-yah and Hanbinnie! So how are you guys doing? Are you guys on a secret midnight date? Did you two finally decide to go out with each other starting today?”

 

I blushed over the question and looked towards SooAh who’s oblivious over my blush while she answered back,

 

“Eyy, what are you saying oppa. You’re asking that question every single week we decided to show up heree. Anyway we’re not dating and not on a so-called-midnight-secret-date-like-what-you’re-implying-to. It’s just like any other day when I decide to walk home with Hanbin. It’s just that.”

 

The cashier hyung then slightly looked at me with a sympathetic look plastered on his face. Well, it’s no wonder if the cashier hyung know my one-sided infatuation with the girl standing next to me since everyone that I know, like JinHwan hyung, Jiwon hyung, Yunhyeong hyung and Junhoe has been pestering me on how obvious my puppy in love look whenever I’m with SooAh. Not only my groupmates, but also by my own crush’s twin too. The teasing by Jiyong hyung and Yang sajangnim is no joke too, especially when they deliberately brought SooAh to my group’s monthly evaluation.

 

“Aww, too bad you guys are still not dating each other. You guys suits each other very well though. Anyway, what can I help you for tonight?”

 

"Haha.. I’ll take that as a compliment, hyung. Anyway, we'll take this," I said as I pointed to the hot chocolate cup that SooAh and I were holding.

 

"You sure you don't want anything else? We still have that shrimp ramen that you and Jiwon eat daily," said the cashier hyung.

 

Uh oh.. This is bad.. SooAh pretty much doesn’t really like her family or friends eating instant ramen too often, and now that she knows…

 

"... You're eating instant ramen everyday?..." She said.

 

I looked at her and saw her glaring at me as she waited for my response. And the only thing I can do was gulping down all of the nervousness I was feeling before responding back.

 

"No! No! I don't eat it everyday! Well.. Maybe three days out of seven days I ate instant ramen here with Jiwon hyung..."

 

"You know.. You should really really eat something else than ramen.. No wonder the staffs are worried for your health when they see you bring in a cup of instant ramen," said SooAh as she frowned.

 

".. Okay.. I'll try to lessen my daily dose of instant ramen," I said as I patted her head.

 

She patted me back on the top of my head. She then walked towards the door, but before she could go out, I pulled her and took her to the chair inside the mart and forced her to sit down and finish her hot chocolate first.

 

“Let’s sit here and finish our drink first,” I said as I across her.

 

We drink our hot chocolate quietly and then out of the blue, she asked,

 

“So.. How was trainee life these days?”

 

It wasn’t actually a random question since SooAh and the rest of the FOODWAR members are good friends with my members. All twelve of us are good friends since we’re all friends of the same age.

 

“Well.. It was just so so.. Like any other busy trainee life. Vocal practice, rap practice, dance practice, preparation for the monthly assessment, and things like that,” I said as I sipped my hot chocolate.

 

“How are the guys anyway? It’s been a long time since I met them. Why aren’t you with them today anyway?”

 

“Long time my , you visited us like, a week ago; which was actually only three days ago”

 

“Yah! Kim Hanbin! Watch your language!”

 

She then pinched my nose, and spontaneously I pinched her cheeks back, resulting both to both of us to groan in pain. We both laughed as we saw just how silly we both look like.

 

I slowly released my hand from pinching her cheek and rubbed the place where I pinched her cheek softly. She then also stopped from pinching my nose too.

 

“So, back to my question. How was everyone? I’m worried about June! Do you guys get along these days?”

 

“Yah yah, why are you missing Goo Junhoe anyway?! Who’s your best friend, huh? Who’s your best friend!” I said playfully while shuffled her hair.

 

She then took my hand which was still shuffling her hair and then said,

“Eyy… Who said I missed June more than I missed my best friend? I missed him pretty much because June is like a little brother to me. You know just how similar he is to Minhyuk.”

 

“… Up until today I still can’t understand just how a talkative guy like Junhoe is similar to your little brother. I mean, Junhoe is just too annoying, he talks to much and he follows you to like, everywhere, while your brother doesn’t even let out a single word even after knowing me for almost three years already.”

 

“You just never see Minhyuk acting spoiled to me”

 

“I bet it’s not worse than how Junhoe throwing all of his aegyo to you”

 

“Well.. It’s actually much much worse than that. Just imagine how my stoic MinHyuk doing aegyo his best”

 

“…. No.. I’m not going to imagine something like that”

 

“… Well… At least somehow Junhoe somehow managed to look cuter than MinHyukkie.”

 

 “…. I could agree with that”

 

“Anyway,,, How about Yoyo oppa?”

 

“He’s fine, still jokin around, and still doing comic dance in every little fre