Lili waved goodbye to Soyoung and continued on her way home, but weirdly felt like she was being followed. She stopped abruptly and spun around, her eyebrows rising when she saw a boy twenty paces behind her.

"You're Yugyeom, right?" she asked.

He nodded without surprise. His face was mostly blank, with the smallest hint of annoyance. "Come with me."

"No." She turned and walked away.

"Mark-hyung is waiting for you."

She slowed.

"He wants you to watch him perform."

She stopped.

Yugyeom rolled his eyes. Girls always fell for Mark. "He won't go on stage if you don't come."

"I can't. My parents will worry."

"Just tell them you're going to a friend's house." He had been interested and, though he'd never admit it aloud, a little intimidated by Lili’s strong will before but now he was just annoyed because he wanted to perform and she was in the way.

She shook her head but turned to face him uncertainly. "They won't let me. It's a school day."

"Such a goody-two-shoes. I don't know what Mark-hyung sees in you." Yugyeom scoffed and turned away. "We'll blame you for the rest of our lives if he doesn't perform with us today."

Lili chewed her lip, eyes darting from Yugyeom's retreating figure to the direction of her house and back again.

Finally she sighed. "Alright I'll go!" If she was being honest with herself, she did want to see them all perform again. Though preferably a new song, a less chauvinistic one.

Yugyeom stopped and smirked lightly, waiting for her to catch up before silently leading the way to the club.

"I hope I don't regret this," she muttered to herself.

Yugyeom heard and rolled his eyes. "Don't blame me if you do."

"Don't worry, I will," she vowed sweetly.

"Yah, it's Mark-hyung's fault," he protested.

She just glanced at him in silent amusement.

A few minutes later, she chuckled slightly and said, "You know, Youngjae said you're actually mature for your age but I'm not sure I see it."

"You talked about me with Youngjae-hyung?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, we were actually talking about my first impression of both of you," she clarified before adding, "It was a horrible first impression, by the way. But at least I got Soyoung as a friend out of it."

"So you should really be thanking us." He smirked at her.

She smirked daintily back. "I'm pretty sure I would've made friends with her by myself."

"But we sped up the process," he countered. "You should be glad you met us."

She resisted, once again, the almost uncontrollable urge to roll her eyes. "You guys and your enormously inflated egos. I don't know how you walk around with those bloated heads of yours."

Yugyeom slanted his gaze at her. "You don't really like us, do you? Aside from Mark-hyung."

Lili fought the blush rising to her cheeks. "I don't really have an opinion on most of you yet because I don't know you well enough. But anyone with working eyes and ears can tell how highly you all think of yourselves. It's not like you try to hide it."

The shadow of a bitter smile passed across Yugyeom's lips. "You'd be surprised to know what we're hiding. And how we're hiding it."

Lili was skeptical but she just shrugged.

"What? You don't believe me?"

"How difficult can life be for you guys? I mean, from what I've seen, attractive people have it easy. And it's no secret that you guys are all handsome." Lili tried not to get flustered by her own words.

"You really are sheltered, aren't you?" Yugyeom almost laughed. "According to that logic, you must have an easy life then, right?"

It took Lili a couple seconds to process his words. "Wait. You think I'm attractive?"

"You're beautiful. Isn't that a fact?" Yugyeom appeared completely unfazed by what he was saying.

Lili was speechless. She had gotten the vibe that he disliked her. Her cheeks flushed pink from the compliment.

But then he added, "That's why Mark-hyung likes you, after all," and slipped into the tiny corner shop--she hadn't realized that they had arrived.

Lili tried not to be too hurt by the insinuation of his words. "I don't care what he thinks," she muttered as she steps into the club for the second time.

As soon as she stepped in, Jackson started clapping and hooting and before long, all the boys in the room joined in though most of them had no idea what was going on. All of the girls—that is, the majority of the people in the club—were glaring at her, hellish murder in their eyes.

Lili would have been scared, but she didn’t think she’d ever see them again.

"There's our VIP!" Jackson yelled over the noise and ran up to her, throwing an arm across her shoulders. Lili smiled uncomfortably up at him while he grinned brilliantly back.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you from all those rabid females," he whispered into her ear and Lili cracked a genuine smile, giggling quietly.

"I made you laugh!" Jackson exclaimed before shouting to GOT7, "Hey guys, I made her laugh!"

She stopped laughing immediately. "Jackson, don't you have to go perform?"

"Yup, but we were waiting on you. You have to sit in our VIP seat!" His smile broadened impossibly as he practically dragged her down the stairs to the lone chair placed right in front of the dance floor.

He firmly pushed her down into the seat, dropping her bag on the ground next to her feet. "Stay here, okay?" He ran off before she can answer.

She glanced around, kind of lost, until Mark finally approached her with a smile.

"Hey. You came."

"Only because Yugyeom said you would all blame me for the rest of your lives if you refused to perform today," she explained with a wry smile. "But I admit I did want to watch you guys again. Though I hope you perform a different song."

Mark laughed. "Don't worry, it's different. Though I actually don't know if you'll think this one is better."

"So uh, why isn't anyone else sitting here?" Lili looked around the dance floor but it seemed to act like a protective pedestal. The only one near it was her.

"We don't like it when people crowd the dance floor when we're performing," Mark explained with a charming grin. "So obviously you're pretty special."

Lili couldn’t help her blush. “Right, obviously.”

“Yo Mark-hyung! Let’s go!” a slightly annoyed Yugyeom called out.

“Coming!” Mark smiled at her again. “Gotta go. Cheer for me, okay?”

“Do well and I will,” Lili answered wittily. Mark grinned and ran off.

The music started and the boys immediately jumped into their dance.

It’s not working
So stop fronting
I know you want me
Let’s start talking

Hey I already know everything so why are you hiding
It’s written all over your face that you like me

Hey why do you look away
I know everything

Mark was right, thought Lili. I don’t like this song either. Why couldn’t they perform something sweeter, less arrogant? Lili sighed but smiled and clapped along to the beat, trying her hardest to ignore the vicious glares from the sidelines.

The boys sang and rapped right to her, staring her in the eyes as they danced forward and back. Lili almost felt like they were speaking to her, though of course they weren’t. Or if they were, they were just acting, obviously.

Now that she had gotten to know them a bit more, she paid more attention to each member’s onstage personality. Mark was handsome and charismatic as always, and Jackson was still silly, but in a much cooler way than usual. BamBam was also still adorable but in a more manly way and Youngjae looked, surprisingly, pretty charming and confident. JB was much more open with his expressions than usual—Lili found that she liked his smile. And Junior was still a cocky bastard.

Yugyeom surprised her the most. Gone was his cold, uncaring attitude. In its place was an expressive, smiley, and—Lili hated to admit it—pretty cute boy.

But he was still conceited.

When the song ended, Lili stood and clapped despite the lyrics, though she decided not to join in with the raucous cheering. They were definitely good performers; she could see why they were chosen to debut soon.

Jackson ran up to her right after the song finished and asked with bright eyes, “So, how was I? I was cool, right?”

Lili chuckled indulgently. “Yes yes, you were very cool Jackson.”

“Ooh, ooh, what about me?” BamBam bounded over excitedly.

Lili patted his head and nodded. “Yes, you were cool too.”

“And me?”

Lili looked up at Mark who was grinning crookedly down at her and she replied, only slightly breathlessly, “Of course, you as well.”

Yugyeom snorted as he walked by. “What flattery.”

“No one asked you,” Lili tossed at him without turning.

“Ooh, maknae got burned!” Jackson hooted until said maknae threw a dark glare at him. “I mean, uh, I love you, Yugyeom!”

Yugyeom rolled his eyes and stalked off.

Lili tolerated the boys’ loud competition for her approval for another minute before excusing herself to the bathroom. It took her several minutes to find, since it was hidden behind the large speakers.

She went inside and calmed herself. She had sworn not to fall for Mark, but her heart sped every time he was around. She needed to stop this silliness; there was no way he would ever like her seriously. Besides, she had a plan to put into action as soon as possible in order to make Soyoung accept Youngjae again before the end of the year.

“Okay. I can do this. I don’t like him at all,” she told herself sternly and smiled.

“Like who?”

A/N: OMG I'm sooo sorry guys! I swear life has been utterly hectic for me! I had AP testing then finals, then graduation, then a cruise, and now I'm taking a summer class at my college to get a head start. But I promised you guys a chapter way back when so hereit is and I hope it's relatively longerishness will appease you! >< I'll do my best to get the next one up ASAP!

Thank you all for your love for this story! I can't believe how many subscribers I have for this one! (Okay, compared to some stories, I don't have a lot, but it's a lot for me!) Thank you all so much! <333

skyblaze208, OUT!

© Copyright 2014 by skyblaze208