I waited outside of my room the next morning, assuming Leo was still uncomfortable directly approaching my door. Once I spotting him down the hallway, I pushed myself off from where I was leaning to meet him. He was wearing several layers of black. Thin layers, but all the same. "Aren't you hot?" I asked skeptically, raising my ginger brows at him. It was approaching July and Korea wasn’t exactly a cool place. 

“No.” His blunt reply was pretty much captured exactly how I imagined that day would go. I wondered why I even bothered asking him questions in the first place. But then, he surprised me by speaking again, his dark, narrow eyes flicking away from me as he spoke in an incredibly quiet mumble, “They keep this building cold.”

I raised another suspicious eyebrow at him. Despite the air conditioning, he had a long sleeve shirt, a light, loose knit black jacket with holes looped around his thumbs, and what appeared to be a sleeveless shirt under all that, the edges of the sleeves visible around his neckline. I shrugged, resolving not to think to hard on his clothing choices. Who was I to judge, anyway? I waved him along as I turned to leave, “Well let’s go then.”

“Good luck!” I heard N’s voice behind us, causing me to whip my head around trying to spot him. His angular, lightly tanned face was poking out around their doorframe down the hall, his gleaming smile accomanied by an overenthusiastic wave of his hand.

“He’s such a mom,” I mumbled, opting not to humor him as I turned back to the task at hand, taking steps towards the staircase. To my surprise I heard a sort of chortle come from Leo. I failed to repress my smile as I glanced up at him out of the corner of my eyes.

“Was he saying that to you or me?” Leo asked. Now he was asking ME questions? Basking in my good fortune at his apparently improved mood, I laughed out loud.

 “I guess we’ll find out,” I spoke as we made our way down the stairs, my voice wavering between hesitant and contented. I didn't want to take this sudden extroverted Leo for granted. Once we were down in the studio basement, Leo made a beeline for the piano studio. “Nuh uh,” I called out. “We don’t need the piano,” I redirected him, pointing to the studio with dual mics and the highest speaker density. “That one.”

A moment of panic crossed Leo’s face as he froze, looking at the door I pointed to. For a moment, I thought maybe it was a supposedly haunted room or something, but for what little time I spent with him, I knew Leo better than that. He wasn't the scared of ghosts type at all. I watched his face flicker, but he avoided my eyes. What was bothering him? Then it hit me, and my heart sank as I pieced together the puzzle.

“Leo?” I asked to get his attention, almost like a teacher getting the attention of a young student, “did N tell you what we worked on together yesterday?”

 “Yes,” he said almost defiantly, already defending himself from the unspoken accusation. He crossed his arms tightly against his chest, his limbs visibly disappearing in his all-black ensemble.

I took a long, slow breath, trying to keep the irritated edge out of my voice. “Were you in such a good mood earlier because you assumed I’d be doing the same thing with you?" I paused to gauge his reaction, but I got nothing. "That you were going to have an easy day?” I pressed. He was perfectly still for a moment, contemplating what to say next, but then his shoulders sagged slightly and I knew I had been right. I sighed sadly, “And here I thought you were actually looking forward to working with me.” It vaguely looked like he might speak in his own defense, but I didn’t even give him a chance, “Don’t bother,” I said coldly, “let’s go.”

Well, it was awkward now. He was shunned back into silence, and I was quietly seething, but we had work to do. I put a disk into the stereo at the corner of the room. Leo looked at it in what looked like fear, “What is that?” he asked.

“A CD,” I replied curtly. I realized I was being cheeky and maybe a little childish, but hey, I’m not perfect, either. I wasn't above dishing him some of his own medicine.

What I didn’t expect was a quiet, airy chuckle from Leo. I looked at him as if he had turned into a monster, and I saw a tightly restrained close-lipped smile, but it was there. My resolve weakened and I let out a long breath, trying to let go of my misplaced anger, “It’s some of your own backing tracks. Before I start forcing you to try new harmonies with me, I figured we need to get used to singing together.” I paused and glanced at him again, yet again noting his unease, “I’ll even let you pick. What first?”

“Eternity,” he stated simply. “But there are six parts.” His last statement was a question thinly veiled as a skeptical statement. I shrugged it off.

“Don’t worry about it. It might sound a bit thin, but just focus on your parts," I began to explain as I messed with the stero, doing my best to get it set up and navigated to the correct song. "And," I continued, "I’ll fill in at least all the other main bits and the closest harmonies when it’s your turn.” When he continued to give me an incredulous deadpan look I rolled my eyes dramatically, going so far as to lazily throw my hands up into the air for a brief moment, “Damn Leo, do I need to prove EVERYTHING to you?”

 I saw a tiny hint of a smirk cross his slightly puffy cheeks, “Yes.” Of course. Petty bastard.

My eyes narrowed as I held his gaze for a moment, and without another word I hit play on the stereoo, starting the instrumental track. I got to start with Ravis' awkward introduction in English, “Look. Love is a nightmare.”

“Wait, stop,” Leo’s voice cut me off as he moved to hit pause.

I practically growled in irritation, my fingers clenching into tight fists at my sides, “What, can’t stand me already?” I spat tt he question at him. I thought we had just gotten past the disappointment!

He looked alightly stunned, and shook his head quickly, “No, no. It’s just,” he paused, glancing around the room anxiously before managing to make eye contact again. I had apparently spooked him more than anticipated. “Is that the same thing Ravi says?”

I stayed stil for a moment. That was not the explanation that I expected. Once I processed exactly what he was asking, I broke out into uncontrollable laughter, doubling over, my hands supporting my upper body on my knees. “Yes!" I gasped out, "His pronunciation is really bad!” I managed between laughs, and I realized Leo was trying his hardest to avoid laughing out loud, that tight-lipped grin nearly to its breaking point.

 Managing to gather himself together, Leo spoke again, “What does he say at the start of Hyde?”

“Um,” I thought quickly, snapping my fingers as I remembered the intro, “Oh, he says ‘New Generation is back, Yeah we killin’ this track right now. We started from the bottom. We just do it now, ah. Just follow’” I did my best to keep my Ravi rap voice impression up without snickering. It wasn't easy. Leo was biting his lip to keep from busting up himself. It was strange to see such an innocent and childish expression on his face. I was noting how nice his teeth were when his voice brought me back.

 “What about Voodoo Doll?”

  Air rushed from my lungs through my nose as I snorted at the question. “I don’t even know!” I cried, busting out laughing again.

His resolve broke, and he covered his face as he laughed for just a short moment. He took a breath to try to compose himself, but his hint of a smile remained when he uncovered his mouth, “Okay, I’m sorry." He had managed to regain his polite demeanor, "Continue when you’re ready.”

I was not as good at regaining my own composure, so it took me a moment longer to properly catch my breath. At long last, I was able to take a full breath without a hint of a giggle, so I resolved to begin again. I stayed silent for Ravi’s intro this time, as I didn’t want to risk another outburst. As I began to sing N's melody, then Ken's, then Hyuk's, then Hongbin's, then N's again, and then Hongbin's, I realized why Leo picked this song. He actually doesn’t have any lines for the first 50 seconds of the entire song. I was already exhausted swapping between Hyuk’s falsetto bits and Hongbin’s lower parts when Leo finally got the lead, and I didn’t even get a break as his part required an octave harmony. But I wouldn’t let him best me, I managed keep up, even singing Ken’s staccato vocals as they should be. All would be repaid soon. Leo even humored me by adding some of Hyuk and Ken’s harmonies while I butchered Ravi’s rap, but then it was his moment. And to my immense joy, he did not hold back for his sustained note while I sang under him. And then it was my turn and I gave him the same courtesy when I took Ken’s high note. And then, well… I was very suddenly reminded how abruptly that song ended.

“Not bad,” Leo confessed with a shrug of just one of his broad shoulders, not even a hint of a smile on his face.

“Oh come on!” I threw my hands up in exasperation. “There’s just one of me! I thought I did pretty well,” I felt myself begin to pout indignantly, despite my best efforts to avoid it.

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” he conceded quickly before jumping right back in, “Alright, let’s give Voodoo Doll a try. This time just worry about Ken and N’s part, I’ll fill in the rest.” He paused, his eyes narrowing as he thought, “And, um, Ravi’s rap, too.”

I was still slightly perturbed, but at least he was actively participating, so I had to be happy with what I got, “Alright, let’s give it a go.”

This one did go way better, though yet again I had to do most of the heavy lifting as this was a very Ken-heavy song. I had to admit, it felt nice to have Leo harmonize with me for once, especially as he took some of Hyuk’s parts. As an experiment, I attempted to bring one of my harmonies a full few steps closer to his, and to my surprise, it actually threw him off pitch. He narrowed his eyes at me, still keeping up with the song, but as soon as it was over, he hit the stop button before the outro even finished.

“What was that?” he snarled at me, practically lunging forward. It was especially jarring given how gentle and sweet his voice was, but that face was full of real and genuine anger and violence.

Still, I stood my ground. “Just testing the waters is all,” I replied calmly, not even acknowledging his outburst. Better not to justify his behavior with a reaction, right?

“I told you I can’t do harmonies that close,” he grumbled, his lips puckering into a narrow frown.

I turned to face him squarely, tilting my chin up in defiant pride. “Yes you can,” I said firmly and bluntly, “You just don’t want to.” When he didn’t say anything in response, I pressed, “Why don't you?”

He took another step closer to me. He had a solid three inches on me in height, and I could tell he was trying to intimidate me. “Even those harmonies with N and Hyuk only happened because they were recorded separately.” Breaking our tense gaze, his eyes flicked towards the lobby, "I don't see why you can't just layer them in production."

I was unmoved. “Well I’m not going to let you do that this time,” I paused; it was time to get to the root of the problem, “You're going to sing the harmonies live if I have anything to say about it." He looked as if he were about to argue, but he decided against it. Given his moment of doubt, I decided to poke the angry bear, "Why DO you feel so competitive with Ken?”

He clearly wasn’t expecting that question from me, but he didn’t budge. “I’m just competitive,” he insisted.

“I can see that,” I stated, looking at him from head to toe, then I fixed my eyes on his as I took a step closer to him. One more step and we would collide. “I won’t be so easily intimidated, Leo,” my voice was low but steady as I did my best to puff out my chest and stand up as straight as my back would allowed. I wasn’t proud of what I did next, but I did it anyway. I blinked slowly, looking up at him through my eyelashes and whispered in my sultriest voice, “My name is Halley, by the way.”

I prepared for him to trip over himself, suddenly realizing our close proximity. I disliked using my feminine wiles and only saved it for emergencies. Clearly this was an emergency. But in contrast to all of my expectations, he held firm, his eyes narrowing even further, his dark eyes as intense as ever. “I know. My name is Leo,” he spat the stage name at me. This battle of will would not be so easily won, it seemed.

 “You were supposed to be easily embarrassed," I grumbled the accusation, my lip curling in agitation. I silently cursed N and Ravi for feeding me the information in the first place.

“Well you made a grave mistake,” his face nearly mirrored mine as he whispered back to me, his voice dropping lower than I'd ever heard it, “you made it a competition, and as I told you already,” he paused, staring deep into my eyes as he his bottom lip, “I’m very competitive.”

So he wasn't above using his appeal either. Well played. Defeated, I reluctantly took a step back, but at his smug smirk, I snapped at him, “That doesn’t mean we’re done here, Leo.” I put heavy emphasis on his name this time. “And I thought you Koreans were supposed to respect your elders,” I murmured. I had learned I was slightly less than a year older than Leo, and I fully realized it was a cheap card to pull.

 But he was quick to counter me again, “And I thought we were supposed to treat each other as equals,” he quipped.

 “So then we’re equals. And as your equal, I’m not giving up, so you can’t either.” I realized I was grasping at argumentative straws, but I was too stubborn to let him have the last word.

He sighed heavily, finally looking away from me to slightly roll his narrow, dark eyes, “That’s not how that works,” but he seemed to at least back down a little bit.

Ignoring his comment, I went back to my original position, “Alright, since using songs you know won’t work, let’s just try some harmonized scales.”

 I had him run through standard scales as I edged my harmonics closer and closer to his pitch. As with the songs before, he often was thrown off when I got too close. “Why won’t you let yourself be accomanied?” I griped after a particularly rough run. It didn't make sense- it was clearly a concious mental block, not an inablity to harmonize. I had analyzed him enough to know he was capable. Then it clicked. “It’s because you don’t trust me,” I said more to myself than to him, and from the twitch of his eyes he didn’t seem to comprehend what I was getting at.

"I get why you don't trust me," I continued to mumble, piecing it together. Finally, I looked up, moving so I could look him in the eye. “But why don’t you trust Ken? Or the others?” my voice started to quicken as I realized I was on to something.

He huffed and looked away, “Of course I trust them.” His voice was indignant, but his refusal to meet my gaze wasn't inspiring any confidence.

“No, you don’t!” I accused, side-stepping to catch a glimpse of his face again. My voice quieted slightly as I thought, “At least not musically. But why?” If he answered, I didn’t hear him. I was busy running through scenarios in my head. “I’ve watched you perform, Leo, you clearly want to be here." If he wasn't a motivated perfomer, that might have explained it, but watching him sing his heart out crossed that option off of my list. "You come alive when you’re performing. Do you wish you had your debut solo, maybe?”

“No!” he practically shouted. “The rest of the members, they’re like,” he paused, visibly attempting to formulate the words in his mind.

I couldn’t let him think too long, I needed him to tell me how he really felt, so I pressed, “Like what, Leo? Burdens?” I knew I was goading him into a corner, which had already proved to be dangerous, but I was never one to back down from a revelation. I had convinced myself that he needed me to push him. He needed to come to terms with whatever was bothering him.

“No!” he repeated, getting angrier by the minute, his voice as loud as I had ever heard it, “They’re like my brothers! They’re loud and annoying, but I love them!” he yelled, “I would be lost without them!” He was still surprisingly angry despite the sweet and genuine words he had just spewed, stepping towards me again. But then he stopped, no doubt noticing the smug -eating grin on my face. I had won this round before he even realized what was happening. His face contorted as if he had just smelled something awful, but I knew he was just having a hard time stomaching my deception.

“Okay, so, you love and trust your fellow VIXX members, great,” I said nonchalantly, “but something is stopping you from trusting them musically. But I can’t figure out why until you trust ME.” Leo looked at me dubiously, still struck silent from our previous spat, so I continued, “I can understand why you might have a hard time harmonizing with other people, Leo. Being the harmony is like being 100% dependent on someone else. I get that, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t like being harmonized with,” I was rambling again, but he made no move to stop me. “Being the lead with close harmonies is so empowering,” I insisted, but his face didn’t budge. Clearly this wasn’t an explanation worth exploring. I needed to show him. I needed a way to force it. And he wasn’t going to like it. I took a moment to reflect on our morning so far, and huffed “You are an emotional roller coaster, you know that?”

He shrugged, but a hint of a smile softened his face, “I might have heard that before.”

I rolled my eyes at his smart remark, choosing to ingore it. “Well, I trust you learned that Taemin song like I asked?”

As soon as I mentioned it, his face turned sour again, “Yes,” he spoke reluctantly.

“Good,” I clapped my hands together once, turning to reach for something in my bag that I really hoped I wouldn’t need. But this was proving to be really difficult. I pulled out a long piece of soft, black cloth.

“What is that?” his voice had a tiny hint of fear.

I glanced over my shoulder to catch a glimpse of him. His face was still stony, but his small frown showed his displeasure. “A blindfold, Leo,” I laughed once as I turned to face him properly, “What, do you need to see to sing?”

His frown deepened as he kept his eyes trained on the dark carpeted floor, "I just don't see why it's necessary."

“Because,” I said simply, “I need you to be as focused as possible." I did my best to sound confident. The last thing I wanted was for this scenario to get turned around on me. "And all you need to do this is to hear and feel.”

“Feel?” he asked incredulously.

“Feel,” I repeated. “Now take off all that extra stuff,” I said, gesturing to his torso.

“What?”

“You heard me,” I spoke as I removed my own light jacket so I was just in my dark grey, plain old tank top. I put a hand on my hip and waited patiently. He was looking off into the distance clearly trying not to watch me remove even a simple jacket. I sighed in exasperation. “No need to be a prude, Leo,” I teased.

He narrowed his eyes at me, and I got a sinking feeling in my gut when a hint of a smile crossed his face. “Fine,” he said as he ever so slowly removed all three outer layers of his clothing. This wasn’t fair. He knew he was a good-looking guy, and he was taking advantage. He even had my favorite bleached blonde hair thing going on. I hadn’t seen his toned arms and shoulders before as he had a habit of wearing long sleeves no matter how hot it was. Despite my best efforts, he had managed to make this plan backfire. Still, I was determined not to lose. I kept my eyes on his face the whole time, very conscious of my own breathing.

“Are you done?” I asked impatiently once he was down to his simple sleeveless black shirt. When he didn’t respond, I stepped forward with the blindfold.

He dodged, twisting his torso to avoid my arms, “I don’t like this.”

I sighed heavily. He was like a child trying not to take his medication. "I don’t care. Stay still.”

Reluctantly, he obliged. I rocked up onto my toes and tied the blindfold gently over his eyes, careful to keep the knot from catching on his artificially blonde hair. Once I was done, I took his hand, and he flinched, reaching to take off the blindfold quickly, but I smacked his hand away. “What are you doing?” he asked, slightly panicked again.

“Calm down,” I said simply, deciding to remain soothing rather than try and contest his whining. “I said you need to feel, right?” I took his hand again and pressed it against my sternum at the center of my chest, very consciously ensuring he was above my bra. He flinched again, but I held firm. I maneuvered his hand so that his thumb was on one collar bone and his index finger on the other, right on the hem of my shirt so he wouldn’t have to actually touch my skin. “Now don’t freak out, I’m going to do the same to you,” I spoke as I reached up to mirror my hand on his chest.

“I can feel you speaking,” he said quietly.

“That’s kinda the point,” I said with a light chuckle, and I saw a hint of a smile appear on his face. “Alright we’re going to do this twice," I explained carefully, "Since I’m nice I’ll let you take the lead first." Again, I felt his chest jerk as he silently laughed once. "This song is hard to stray from pitch-wise, so stay steady. If you hear me get too close to you harmonically, just feel it instead.” I shifted my hand slightly to get better contact. I continued to speak to try and distract him, "Don't worry about hearing me, just concentrate on this."

He was quiet for a long, still moment before he spoke, “I’ll try.”

Honestly, that was more than I could ask for from him, so I reached with my free hand to press play, and Danger’s short intro started. As soon as he started singing, I needed to stop myself from flinching as he had done earlier. I had done exercises like this before, but it usually involved having heads on tables or something, not hand to chest. But I was desperate, and this was what I had. Feeling him hit the low end of his register right of the bat was slightly jarring as the low vibrations radiated up my arm. Luckily, I managed to come to my senses before I needed to harmonize. As soon as I came in, I felt him jump a little, but he stayed on track, to my pleasant surprise.

As soon as we were in sync with our breathing, we both relaxed as the song went on. Apparently I began to dance without really thinking about it, because I suddenly felt his hand on my hip like a vice grip. My movement was distracting him, apparently. I snuck a peek up at his face, and I was pleased to see he wasn’t holding back on his vocals, and his focus was impressive. Even when I had stilled, his hand on my hip never moved. His hand on my chest increased in pressure as I varied my harmonies. He didn’t want to lose me.

We were about to hit the major modulation that I loved so much, and I felt a twinge of panic. As I had told Leo just moments before, harmonizing like this was a dependency. At that moment I felt that Leo was a branch sticking out of the side of a cliff, and he was the only thing standing between me and my untimely demise. We hit that modulation and it was like my grasp on that branch was slipping. Without even thinking, both of my hands moved. I needed a firmer grasp on his voice. My hand on his chest moved so that my forefinger slipped under his shirt to feel the skin of his collarbone directly. My free hand s up silently to cling to the fabric of his shirt by his neck, and I instantly felt relief. I was able to bring my harmony higher, swinging on alternating sides of his voice, as intended. But it was a close call, and I was a little shaken, even as the song went back to the dissonant chords that had been so easy before. And then all at once, it was over. With my hand near his neck, I felt his pulse, and my hand on his chest felt the rise and fall of his labored breathing. We were still and silent for a moment until I dared to look up at his still blindfolded face to be alarmed at how close we were. I honestly don’t remember stepping any closer to him, but I couldn’t say I was surprised. I suppose it was a weakness of mine to get so emotionally invested in even the smallest bit of music, but for the first time I saw a genuine smile on Leo’s face. It was a small thing, but it was still so expressive. I felt an intense longing to see his eyes. Even so, I didn’t dare move my hands as if I would still fall if I let go. His hand on my chest lifted and he pulled the blindfold up to his forehead so he could look at me.

I recognized the look in his eyes. He felt on top of the world. I had carried his vocals on my harmonies to a place he had never experienced before. “I see what you mean now,” he said excitedly. I smiled meekly at him, and his own faded. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

I coughed once, and it seemed to break him out of his stupor. All at once he noticed our proximity and where our hands had wandered. His hand flew off of my hip as if I were made of fire. Before he could freak out, I spoke up, “That was great,” I did my best to regain my usual confidence before speaking again, “Are you ready to switch?”

He blinked a few times, took an awkward step back and nodded, “Yeah,” he spoke slowly. He clearly wanted an explanation, but I was curious if he would understand after switching roles.

“Alright let’s do this,” I said, replacing his blindfold and our hands – their original positions.

It was my turn to take the lead, and it really challenged the low end of my vocal register, but bringing it up an octave would risk throwing Leo off, so I did what I could to stay in the written key. At some point I became very aware of the lyrics we were singing, but it wasn’t the time to ponder the implications. I was a little surprised when Leo came in so confidently on the harmony, but just as I had, he fell into my breathing rhythm quickly. Just you wait, I thought. It was about to get difficult. As if right on cue, when it was his turn to lead into the major modulation, I felt him falter. It was my turn to be the branch he clung to, and I wasn’t going to let him fall. I stepped closer, grabbed his free hand and brought it to my neck, and I felt him relax nearly instantly. His hand on my chest drifted upward as well until he was touching skin, and we finished out the song flawlessly. It was my turn to feel powerful. It wasn’t just the harmonies themselves, it was the fact that it was him: the stubborn, bull-headed Leo, that HE was supporting ME this time. It was incredible.

 When I dared look up into his face this time, I recognized that face. I felt a strange sense of satisfaction that he was just as affected by this exercise as I was. I couldn’t really place why that made me so happy, but I let it go in favor of slowly removing his blindfold. It took me by surprise when he looked me right in the eyes, his hands unwavering. “That was perfect,” I managed to squeak, my voice almost failing me. In lieu of speaking, slowly, silently, his thumb moved to trace my jawline and my eyes involuntarily fluttered shut as I let out a pent up sigh. “Now you know what I felt five minutes ago,” I whispered as I opened my eyes again to meet his.

“Yeah,” he voiced quietly.

Doing my best to avoid silence I continued, “Now imagine that with your brothers you love and trust so much,” it was half teasing, but half honesty. If he felt so strongly just with me- his equally stubborn and frustrating instructor- I couldn’t wait to see when he allowed himself to really trust the rest of the group.

But something like a shadow crossed his face at my words. Something troubled him, but then he must have come to some sort of conclusion as he closed his eyes and stepped away from me rather suddenly. My neck suddenly felt cold where his hands had been, and I had no explanation for the intense disappointment I felt as he turned away from me.

He was nearly out the door when his soft voice reached me, “Taekwoon.”

“What?” I asked desperately, as if I had just missed life or death instructions.

“My name. Jung Taekwoon,” he paused for a long moment, his hand coming to rest on the doorframe as he continued to face away from me.

“It’s nice to meet you, Taekwoon,” my voice was tired and soft.

“Nice to meet you Halley.” And with that he was gone.