{ chapter e l e v e n }

Youngji was quietly sitting on one side of the practice room, clutching a water bottle on one hand while watching her favorite idol group practice in front of her. Mark sends her occasional smiles whenever his eyes catch hers, while all Jackson did was to huff at her.

Still though, she couldn’t deny the fact that the two rappers were indeed exceptional at what they do. It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that STORM was at the top of the proverbial K-Pop food chain– even overpowering other idol groups who had more members and from bigger companies.

She even surprised herself that she wasn’t feeling like acting a deranged fangirl whenever Mark was around her. She was quite weirded out by herself, honestly speaking. It was indeed different to know the idols personally than just knowing them by their television shows and interviews.

Her attention was caught by the clapping of the choreographer– who introduced himself as Jr. earlier– with a huge smile on his face. “Good job, Mark, Jackson!” He complimented before darting Youngji an amused smile. The latter could only smile back even though she was puzzled when Jr. playfully shoved Jackson’s shoulder. “I now know why Jackson’s distracted earlier~” He teased lightly. Mark chuckled at the statement while Jackson only glared.

“Those aren’t connected, Jr.!” Jackson protested, but the two guys along with some of the dancers only continued laughing, paying him no heed.

Jackson stomped sulkily towards the bench where Youngji was sitting down, grabbing a half-filled bottle of water next to Youngji. The girl was about to warn him, saying that it was her own bottle and that Jackson’s was on the other side, but he was already chugging it down to the last drop. Youngji sighed, annoyed. “Yah! Why did you drink that?!” She accosted.

The boy only stared at her with one of his eyebrows raised. “This isn’t even yours,” he replied as he put down the now-empty bottle.

“Are you an idiot? Of course that’s mine! Why would I even talk to you if it wasn’t.” She sarcastically responded. He only stared at her blankly, making her sigh once more. “That’s yours.” She said, pointing to Jackson’s bottle. “You drank my water.”

He remained silent for a while before his face contorted into disgust. “EEEEW!” He fussily reacted. “I got your saliva on me!”

“Who got their saliva on you, Jackson?” Mark curiously asked before casually sitting next to Youngji, grabbing his own water bottle.

Jr. came in a few seconds later, clapping Jackson’s shoulder. “Saliva? On Jackson? Who is that?” He questioned, this time sitting on Youngji’s other side.

Two curious pairs of eyes were now on Jackson before he pointed accusingly at Youngji. “THAT GIRL! Aish!”

Mark and Jr.’s eyes widened, their eyes darting from Jackson to Youngji. “You kissed Youngji?!” Jr. exclaimed loudly, making almost half the room stare at them in curiosity.

“Wha– I DIDN’T!” Youngji vehemently denied with matching frantic hand gestures. She stood up, pushing Jackson’s shoulder. “Yah, you’re such a big baby! Stop overacting, will you?!” She scolded.

Mark’s eyes displayed both confusion and amusement as he spoke. “What happened, then? If you didn’t kiss Jackson, Youngji-ssi, why did he say that he has your saliva on him?”

“He was just overreacting! He grabbed my water bottle by mistake and drank from there. I was about to stop him but he just finished the whole bottle like the barbarian that he was.” She huffed as she shot Jackson a pointed glare.

Mark and Jr. slowly nodded. “Oooh, I thought something else happened.” Jr. commented before motioning Youngji to sit between them again.

“Why do you sound so relieved?” Jackson snarled aggressively, pushing Youngji out of the way. He effectively prevented her from sitting back down between the other two, sending an amused grin to the other boys’ faces.

“I didn’t! I was just making a comment,” Jr. defended himself with a laugh. “Besides, I was going to say that you two just had an indirect kiss. No big deal,” he shrugged, noticing the stiffening of Jackson and Youngji in front of them. He pretended not to know as he nudged Mark. “Right, Mark?”

The eldest of the four swiftly nodded with a seemingly innocent smile. “Of course it’s not a big deal. Haven’t they kissed each oth–”

“Shut up, dimsum!!!” Jackson retaliated. His and Youngji’s faces were now beet red as they recalled the kiss that happened when they first met.

Youngji awkwardly coughed and bowed to the two sitting in front of her. “Uhm, I– I should probably go. My friends are probably wondering where I am now.” She forced a smile to cover the awkward air.

“Is that so?” Both Mark and Jr. stood up. “Isn’t it possible to get dinner first before you go?” The elder half of STORM asked.

She missed a beat before answering, because even if she does know Mark personally, he was still her bias! And he just asked her to dinner! Never mind the fact that they probably won’t be alone, but still!

“Yah, are you deaf?” Jackson’s nudge brought her back to reality. “He was asking you.”

She shot him a dirty look. “I’d probably go if you weren’t there, you .” She growled, momentarily forgetting about Mark’s and Jr.’s presence. There was just something about Jackson that makes her forget about anything else.

“Really?” Mark and Jr.’s eyes twinkled. “Then I guess we should get that dinner without Jack–” Mark began but Jackson irritably shut him off.

“You’re not going anywhere with this idiot alone!” He vehemently denied.

Mark’s eyebrows shut up. “Why is that? If I wasn’t mistaken, I am Youngji-ssi’s bias, correct?” The elder turned to Youngji for confirmation with a charming smile. Youngji nodded slowly, entranced. “So why not?”

“Be–because–” He fumbled for a reason. He suddenly snapped his fingers in front of Mark. “Because we’re not allowed to date yet!” He finished, feeling a satisfied smirk crawl on his face for being a genius.

To his surprise, both Mark and Jr. laughed while Youngji hit him on his back. “Who said we’ll date?” Mark shook his head before patting Jr.’s shoulder. “C’mon Jr., Youngji-ssi.” He called out before walking towards the door, Jr. and Youngji closely following him.

“YAH WAIT FOR ME!!!”

--

For safety purposes, the four of them proceeded to the JYPE cafeteria. They bumped into celebrities, stylists, and other staffs here and there as they located the cafeteria. Youngji was amazed at how the celebrities and idols themselves seem to be so much like a normal person in the cradle of their company building.

Her awe didn’t escape Mark, and the idol laughed. “You’d be surprised at how normal we are, Youngji-ssi.” He stated with chuckles in between. “We’re still ordinary people, you know. Taecyeon hyung snores in his sleep and Fei noona snorts when she laughs too hard.” He threw her a conspiratorial smile before winking. “Don’t tell them I said that!”

Youngji laughed with her bias as they took their seats. Somehow, she already feels comfortable around Mark, as if he was a friend rather than an unreachable idol for an ordinary fan like her. Seeing the boys up close like this, talking and joking around with them, they don’t seem to be far away.

“Jackson-ah, go buy the food.” Jr. instructed just as the younger half of STORM was getting ready to settle down on his seat. Jackson incredulously pointed a finger on his chest before parroting, “Me?!”

“Yes, you.” Mark deadpanned. “Who else then? You’re the maknae here, you know.”

“This idiot is younger than me!” Jackson rebutted as he pointed an eager finger to Youngji, but both Mark and Jr. only looked at him blankly. After a minute, he deeply sighed before dragging his feet to the cafeteria’s counter to get their food.

“Youngji-ssi, we’ll be the ones to apologize for Jackson’s childish behavior.” Mark began, but Youngji only waved him off with a smile. “No need for that, Mark-ssi. I’m fine with it.”

Jr. smiled. “You’re a good girl, Youngji-ssi.” He commented, and Youngji could only return a shy smile of her own.

It didn’t take long for Jackson to bring back their food on the table. The three boys excitedly dug in as they exchanged stories, occasionally bringing Youngji into the conversation. She was very thankful upon seeing the boys (read: Mark and Jr.) making an effort to accommodate her. She wanted to cherish every moment and every laughter that she had spent with them because she was sure that it will be the last time that she will be with them personally.

“Thank you so much for today, Mark-ssi, Jr.-ssi,” she briefly glanced at Jackson who was not facing her before adding, “Jackson-ssi.” She smiled at the two boys. “I’m really happy to have met you all.”

Jr. made a weird face before responding. “Youngji-ssi, why do you sound as if you’re saying goodbye? You’ll go to STORM’s event tomorrow, right?”

Youngji only smiled before forcing herself to nod, even though she had no plans of going to the event. She was certain that the sasaeng fans from earlier will be there for Mark and Jackson, and she wouldn’t want to ruin the perfect two-year anniversary party for the two boys just because of her presence which will surely cause ruckus within the fans.

“Seunghoon hyung! Please take Youngji-ssi home.” Mark told STORM’s manager, and the latter only nodded before getting the car. The elder of STORM turned to her with a gentle smile, “Take care and see you, Youngji-ssi.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow, Youngji!” Jr. seconded.

The two elder boys then turned to Jackson, expecting him to say something to Youngji, too. The younger grunted before looking away from Youngji. “See you, idiot.”

Youngji couldn’t help the smile that blossomed into her face.

A/N: really sorry for the late update! rl is bugging me so much, i could die ;;A;; i've had a bad day so i resorted to writing. (i hope it doesn't )

anywaaaaay, thank you so much to Dklw_igot7 for the upvote! <3

comments? :))))