We rehearsed all together for the dance intro, as I had promised. It was rather unnerving to take Hongbin’s usual place, laying on the floor, only to be deftly flung up onto my feet by the six of them. But other than that, I was actually really excited to be able to dance with them, even if it was only for the thirty second intro. I had to very quickly get out of the way in order to get onto wherever the piano would be in order to not screw up the transition. As N had predicted, the teaser was released very shortly after I sent the files to Jellyfish, and we were already scheduled to appear on several comeback stages starting on the 13^th, when the video would be published.

After a rather flawless rehearsal, we were all laying on the cool floor of the dance practice room, weary from the continuous activity of the day. “I can’t believe it’s almost over,” Hongbin spoke, his low voice echoing around the plain room.

“Over?” I gave one dry laugh, “You guy are going to perform the out of this thing for a few months, I imagine.”

There were a few tired laughs in response, but Hongbin answered back quickly, “That’s not what I meant,” he sighed, “When you first got here, it seemed like it was going to take forever.”

“May does seem like forever ago, though, doesn’t it?” Hakyeon spoke up, and I tilted my head to catch his eye, a little smile on his face.

There was a short silence. “You all have come a long way,” I spoke softly, “I’m so proud of you.”

“Don’t,” Ravi spoke now, “Not yet.”

I closed my eyes, ignoring him this time, “I’ve booked my flight home.”

“When?” Hyuk’s voice came to me quickly, panicked. I heard him scramble to sit up.

Keeping my eyes shut, I sighed again, working hard to keep my voice level. “The 14th. I’ll appear in your first performance, and then I have to go back.”

“There’s only two days before the performance,” Leo’s voice said matter-of-factly. My eyes finally opened to find Hyuk at my side, his eyes incredibly sad.

I shook my head at him, “There’s no time to be sad. We can all be sad together before I leave, okay?”

Ken, who had gotten to his feet, stood right near my head, “She’s right,” he said authoritatively, “We have to do something fun tomorrow.”

“Where should we go?” N asked, also scrambling to his feet.

I groaned a little as I sat up, “Actually,” I looked around to each of them. Without exception, they all were watching me seriously. “Can we just say here?” I hoped they understood my meaning. As much as going out with them was fun, I didn’t want to risk running into anyone we knew, or any sort of distraction. It would be the last quiet day we all had together. I wanted to make it count.

Hyuk suddenly perked up, “Party?”

We all laughed, but the idea was actually pretty good. “It’s not like we’re short on supplies,” Ravi reminded us.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” N agreed, nodding decisively. “Everyone get some sleep tonight, we’ll make tomorrow count.”

Heading upstairs all together, we all chattered together, coming up with silly ideas for my farewell party. They dropped me off at my room, and I slumped into my office chair. With only a handful of days left in Korea, I needed to start packing up my things. I despise packing. With an unhappy moan, I rolled my chair over to my little closet, dragging my suitcases out of the dusty corner, letting them fall heavily to the floor. Cary had been incredibly helpful when I was packing up to come here, but it meant that I wouldn’t be able to fit all of my things if I didn’t maintain some level of packing efficiency.

As I was still plotting out my plan of attack for packing, a knock came at my door. “Come in,” I huffed, still looking around at my mess of a room. The door was stopped by one of the suitcases, but I watched as Leo squeezed through anyway. I couldn’t help but laugh, “Sorry, Taekwoon,” I made a lazy gesture to the state of the room, “I’ve made a bit of a mess.”

He actually smiled a little as he looked around as well, “Need help?” he asked.

I sighed a little, “Maybe? I’m just getting started.” I looked up at him as he slumped into the plush visitor chair, and I felt my face break into an involuntary smile. I needed to hold onto every moment that I was given. Especially with Leo. I had gotten to the point where I had simply accepted my unfortunate emotions, and chose to enjoy it while I could. It helped that he seemed to enjoy spending time with me more as time went on. “I could use some company though,” I offered hopefully.

He nodded, his smile gone for now, “Are you okay?” he asked, rather suddenly.

“Hm?” I questioned, not really sure what he was asking about, exactly.

“I mean,” he looked at me properly, his brows raising a little in worry, “Are you happy to go home?”

I sighed heavily as I began rolling up some of my shirts, “It will be nice to be home,” I admitted, tucking the rolled shirts into one of the suitcases. “But,” I paused as I pulled more clothes out of my drawers, “I’m sad to be leaving.”

“What will do you once you’re home?” he pressed, clearly driving the conversation. He was leaning forwards now, hands clasped together on his knees.

I shrugged a little, “I’m sure my management has huge plans for me already. Maybe a tour or something.”

“Already?”

“Well,” I shook my head a little, “I’ve been gone for a long time. Everyone knows I’m in Korea, but most of my American audience won’t care to see what I’ve been up to here,” I returned my attention to my belongings, doing my best to keep them neat as I tucked them away.

We were both quiet for a while then, but it was comfortable as always. “You made a lot of connections here,” he spoke up again, causing me to look up at him. His face was serious, if not a little sad.

“I did,” I responded simply, looking away, “And as much as I’d love to just right into another project, it just wouldn’t be good for my career to stay away for so long.”

“GD?” he questioned again. This time when I looked up at him, he was looking away.

I laughed a little, “Well he said he would fly his guys to America. The man is determined.”

Leo seemed wholly unamused, “So will you never come back?” he finally asked. Clearly this was the question he wanted to ask since crossing the threshold of my room.

Setting down the pair of jeans I was carefully folding, I stood and moved to the edge of my bed, directly across from the chair he was in. “I don’t know, Taekwoon,” I answered honestly, tilting my head to meet his eyes. “I want to,” I stressed, “But even if I do, I doubt I’ll ever take on a project this big again.”

“Why not?”

I searched his face for a hint of his true thoughts, but as usual, he was a tough read. “Because,” I finally started, “When I agreed to a collaboration, I had no idea that I would be doing quite this much.” After a short pause to gather my thoughts, I continued, “This wasn’t really a collaboration at all. I wrote and produced a song, then I became your teacher, training the six of you to work together. I became a part of VIXX for these past five months, not a collaborator.” I sighed heavily, “In theory this should have just been VIXX featuring Mira, with me making an appearance in one of your songs or videos, but,” I tugged at my dark red hair for a brief moment, unable to articulate the end of my thought.

He didn’t let me continue, “Why did you do all of this?” he questioned, his expression guarded and careful now.

“Because,” I started again, determined to express myself properly, “When I first met you guys, I saw a group of six incredibly talented young men who weren’t living up to their potential. Voodoo was fantastic, but it was imbalanced and underutilized some of your greatest strengths. I felt it was a sort of musical injustice.” I laughed at myself now. It sounded so silly. When I dared to glance up at Leo, he had a little smile on his face as well.

“What about all the others you have met?” he asked yet again.

I shook my head, “Super Junior is very established. If I worked with them, my greatest challenge would be to write and arrange a song suitable for a group that size. But I could do that stateside, and only come to Korea when it came time to rehearse and record. Henry is a solo artist and his home country is Canada, anyway. Taemin will end up in American again, and I’m not even sure if he’s a suitable collaboration partner, anyway.” I stopped and sighed heavily once again.

“What about us?” he asked quietly, staring me down. I didn’t know what he meant by ‘us’. VIXX or was it just him and me? In either case, the answer was unfortunately the same.

I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. “We can keep in touch,” I offered weakly. We both knew that it wouldn’t be the same.

He finally looked away, standing from his chair and moving to crouch down next to one of the suitcases, deftly re-arranging what I had already put in there in order to make some room. The conversation was clearly over, and I was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. We spent the rest of the evening in silence, packing up everything except what I needed for the next few days.

Once we were done, we simply sat in silence for a while. It had grown dark by then, the rather inadequate lighting of my room illuminating the room with a dull glow. I had half expected Leo to just leave at that point, but he settled back into the all too familiar chair. He sat, still and quiet, his long legs draped over one of the arms of the chair. Looking up at the ceiling, he let his head hang on the other arm. I stared at him for a long moment, wishing I could read his mind. The two of us had grown close over the past couple of months, but he was always so hard to predict. That night might have been the last we spent alone together, so I took a chance, “Taekwoon,” I prompted, causing him to tilt his head, raising an eyebrow at me, “When you carried me upstairs that night,” he quickly looked away, the hint of embarrassment plain to see on his face.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said simply, trying to dismiss me.

“I woke up,” I pressed, not tolerating the attempt to brush me off, “When you had me in the chair with you.”

He snapped his head to look at me again, his eyes wider than usual. “What?” he asked incredulously, his voice a bit louder than usual.

I smiled a little, trying to keep my face as calm as I could, “You fell asleep,” I reminded him, though judging by his face, he needed no reminder at all.

He sputtered for a moment, sitting up in the chair properly, “I’m sorry,” he start, looking around as if the words he wanted to say were hiding in my room.

“Taekwoon,” I stopped him, “it’s okay,” I said with a little laugh. His reaction was extreme, but I had to admit it was kind of cute, “It was,” I paused, taking a break, “It was nice. Thanks for bringing me home.”

It was quiet as he thought for a long moment, “You’re welcome,” he finally spoke, clearly hesitant. Leo was finally able to look me in the eye properly, “Thank you for everything, Halley,” he spoke quietly. I figured he also realized this would probably be our last time together with just the two of us. Tomorrow we would spend a much needed day with the seven of us relaxing together, and then the madness would begin with performances, and then it would be all over.

“I really am proud of you,” I repeated the sentiment that had been denied me earlier. This time, though, I was being more specific.

“We all worked hard,” he spoke softly.

I shook my head, “I mean you, Leo.” When he simply looked at me in question, I kept speaking, “When I first got here, you would pretty much say one word at a time, and you avoided contact with everyone, including the rest of VIXX.” I stopped to sigh, straightening up a little, “But you’ve opened up a lot. I know you’re very passionate about singing, so I like to think that when I forced you to sing with the others so closely, it kind of forced you to trust them,” I paused, again, shaking my head, “I don’t know, maybe I’m just making that up.”

Finally, he laughed a little, “No, I think you’re right.” He managed to smile at me a little, “So thanks for that, and I’m sorry I fought you so hard.”

I shook my head, “I think if you had been easy to work with, it would have been infinitely less satisfying,” I chuckled to myself as well, “You gave me a much needed challenge.”

We were finally able to relax a little, both of us laughing softly in remembrance of our time together. Eventually, the laughter died and the silence was no longer comfortable. “I should go,” Leo spoke softly, moving to stand.

“Yeah,” I looked out the window at the speckled lights in the darkness, “It’s late.” I stood as well, moving to shift the now packed suitcase out of the way so he could open the door properly.

He placed a hand on the door handle, but stopped. Turning to me, his face was confused, cycling through emotions as if he were a store piano stuck on demo mode. Opting not to speak, he simply stepped over the luggage and hugged me. It wasn’t his usual tentative, awkward style, but it was as if he were trying to consume me, his tall shoulders hunched over me, arms holding me close. I was so surprised that I didn’t get a chance to react before he pulled away. Without a word, he was gone.

The next day was just as promised- a party. Hyuk had procured a cake from somewhere, and it was reminiscent of the parties we had before. I was extremely relieved that none of them were sad or mopey considering the reason for the party. Instead, it was delightfully normal. We ate cake, had another dance party, and just spent time together. I was exactly what I had wanted out of the day.

“Are you guys all ready for tomorrow?” I asked, my head resting in Ken’s lap on the pillow-couch.

“We had better be,” Hakyeon said with a laugh, “We’ve only been preparing for this since forever.”

We all laughed at this, “True,” I admitted, “But still, it’s a big deal, right?”

“Comeback stages are extremely important,” Ravi pointed out, “If we it up, it’s hard to recover from.”

“But the video is so good,” Ken pointed out from above me, “That might be our saving grace.”

“We won’t mess it up,” Hyuk whined, “Don’t say things like that hyung.”

I laughed again, “We’ll be fine,” I assured them. “Get some rest, okay?”

Ken reached down to pinch my cheeks, “Yes Mira noona,” he teased. I couldn’t help but smile up at him. His wide grin helped to calm my troubled heart. As much as the party was exactly what I had wanted, every hour was like a doomsday clock in my brain.

When we all piled into the van the next day, we were quiet. We would get ready at the venue, so we made our way there as soon as everyone was awake and fed. Ken drove us, the management taking their own car this time. When we reached the studio, fans were already lining up outside. I craned my neck to watch as we drove by. “There will be several performers today,” Ravi spoke to me quietly, answering my obvious question.

The seven of us were herded backstage, and we were all pulled apart to receive our hair, makeup, and styling treatments. They decided to style us according the teaser photos, including me. That meant they would all be dressed in basic black outfits with the circuit contacts, while I was dressed in a rather skimpy silver tank top and silver shorts. I should be used to stuff like that by now, but I supposed it had been a long time since I had properly performed like this, so I was slightly uncomfortable. It would wear off, of that I was certain. As soon as I went out onto the stage, my Mira brain would take over, shutting Halley out. My appearance was intended to be a surprise, so it needed to be as dramatic as possible.

We got to meet up again before it was our turn to go on, but everyone was quiet, mentally preparing. “Is the piano ready?” I heard Hakyeon ask a staff member, who simply nodded before hustling away again. Sooner that I would have liked, we were ushered away; it was our turn. The stage was dark as we took our marks. The boys helped ensure I lay down just as they needed me to. I was covered in a thin black sheet to make my cameo even more dramatic. Once everyone was in place, the ‘Steel Heart’ intro began, and the lights flicked on. The screaming was deafening, and it lit the familiar fire in my blood whenever it was time to perform. Ravi and Hongbin’s sudden grip on my shoulders let me know it was time. I tightened my core as Leo and Ken’s hands were on me next, propelling me upwards while N and Hyuk held my ankles to root me in place. The thin sheet fell away and the screams redoubled at my reveal. The robotic dance only lasted about twenty five seconds before I had to swing out of the way, finding my seat gracefully at the piano in the corner. It was a beautiful clear acrylic instrument, perfect for the song. I had no time to admire it, however, because the song started immediately. The piano echoed around the stage, and the backing track was thankfully right on time.

Leo’s live voice was flawless, and I instantly relaxed. This was now just another repetition of the song we had performed together so many times. The screams got filtered out of my head at some point, and I just pounded away passionately at the piano. The track was loud, and I needed to compete. Just for this one performance, they would have me with them, and I wanted them to hear me. It was like this piano performance was the final set of training wheels that I had given them, and after this they were big boys who had to continue all on their own.

The song ended, the boys all crumpled to the ground after being ‘unplugged’ in the choreography, and the screams reached me as soon as my fingers left the piano. The lights cut out again, and staff members rushed the stage to hurry us out so they could prepare for the next performance. We were silent as we ran offstage, welcome to the dim lights waiting for us. A familiar figure was standing in the doorway.

“Taemin?” I laughed, falling into his outstretched arms.

He grinned, “Figured I’d return the favor,” he murmured to me. “But looks like you have enough well-wishers.”

As he had, I kissed his cheek quickly, “Thank you,” I said sincerely. The rest of VIXX continues past us to the dressing rooms. Taemin looked at me expectantly, but I smiled up at him sadly, “I leave tomorrow.”

His face fell a little, and he pulled me into another tight hug, “I’m going to miss you,” he whispered.

“I’ll see you again soon,” I assured him, “There’s no way you’re not visiting LA, right?” I’m not sure if I was comforting him or myself more.

“Of course,” he said as he hugged me tighter. After a short moment, he let me go, holding me at arm’s length, “Go on, then, don’t waste your time with me.”

With a meek smile, I nodded, “I still expect plenty of text messages, okay?”

“Okay, okay,” he grinned, shoving me a little, “Now go!”

With a little laugh, I turned and jogged away through the open doorway, trying to find my way back to the dressing room. “Lost?” a voice called from a hallway. It was familiar, and I stopped, backtracking slightly.

“GD?” I asked quietly, looking around, “What are you doing here?”

“What, you thought I wasn’t curious to see what five months of work with Mira would accomplish?” he asked with a little grin. He stepped forward, reaching to gently grab my hand, “Come on, let me bring you back.”

He dragged me along, his grip on my hand gentle, yet commanding. It was very much like his personality. His hair had been dyed black, and I silently mourned his blonde hair to myself with a little smile. “Thanks, Jiyong,” I said with a little smile as he gestured to the dressing room in question.

“See you soon,” he said with a little wink before disappearing down the hallway.

I pushed my way into the room, where the members of VIXX were seated in various chairs around the room. They all looked up, grinning at me. “That was great!” Ken finally erupted, jumping up to hug me.

All at once they blew up, mobbing me with excited words and happy faces. I was so relieved, glad to see that they were experience the well-deserved high of a good performance. We ended up in a huge group hug, laughing and smiling. Finally, we all settled down, still clinging to one another. “You guys did amazing,” I finally sighed, relaxing.

“Mira,” I heard Hyuk’s voice start to drop in sadness.

I shook my head, “Hyukkie,” I shushed him, “We can be sad tomorrow. Today you guys have done something amazing.”

In the end, I managed to once again postpone the inevitable, and instead we all went out to eat together. We were all pretty exhausted after the performance, both physically and emotionally. The culmination of all of our efforts had been a success, though as it always was, it felt a bit anticlimactic. We would have to wait and see what the reactions would be. But for now, all we had to do was wait. And they would have to wait without me.