Anytime it seemed like Taehyun wanted to speak to her again, Yool would hurriedly make up an excuse and hide away in a different practice room than the one she was always in. And thus, she successfully evaded Taehyun until the evening of the winter showcase.

And it certainly didn’t seem to sit right with Taehyun that whenever he did see her, she was with that Hoseok guy.

Because they’d finished putting up the lights and lanterns so soon, all the members of that team had been reassigned to other duties around the concert hall. Taehyun was now on the team in charge of decorating the large onstage Christmas tree, and Yool was on backstage arrangement. With Jung Hoseok.

Taehyun watched as they disappeared behind the curtains, laughing over some joke he wasn’t a part of, and accidentally lifted a box of plastic ornaments with too much force; he ended up turning the box over. Tree ornaments went rolling across the floor in every which direction. and his group—basically comprised of his closest friends—groaned in protest.

“Seriously, man?” Jinwoo gave him an annoyed look and knelt to pick up the ones in reach.

“What’s with you lately, showing emotions and all?” Seunghoon asked, and Taehyun gave him an exasperated scowl.

“I’m not a robot.” He got on his knees to pick up ornaments also. Damn, why are there so many?!

“Does this have anything to do with Lee Yool?”

Taehyun’s head snapped in the direction of Minho, who was facing away as he palmed the space under a couple theater chairs for any ornaments that may have rolled under there. “No.”

“Really?” Seungyoon added. “So the fact that you just overturned that box had nothing to do with the fact that it seems like Yool and Hoseok have been getting along quite well these days?”

Taehyun didn’t answer.

“If you like her, then why don’t you just tell her? Screw the bet; I didn’t even think that it was still on.”

Yeah, neither did she. “She wouldn’t believe me, even if I told her!”

Seungyoon straightened up in disbelief and stared at his friend with wide eyes. “So you do like her?!” He guffawed, the incredulity palpable in each bark of laughter that resonated through the concert hall. “No way! Nam Taehyun actually likes a girl?!”

“Shut up. This is serious.” Seunghoon shoves him aside. “What makes you think she won’t believe you?”

I did pretend I liked her for several weeks…and I could swear she was beginning to like me too at some point. “I don’t know. I can’t really read her.”

“But I thought you liked unpredictability.”

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