Hyunjin was the first to show up to the MBC studio that day. Usually he was rushing to meet his manager in the car, but today he had been early. He supposed he should have stopped for some coffee beforehand, but the thought escaped him until he had arrived a good 20 minutes early. Looking at his watch, he assumed he had no time to hit the café a few floors down, so he sat and waited for Chani, who was usually pretty punctual and arrived before him on most days.

He, Chani, and Minju would finally be meeting for their first practice run through of Aloha from the drama, My Hospital Playlist. The stage would not contain any intense choreography, but the song was sweet and calming, making it a great choice to be Minju’s first introduction stage.

He was sent the song earlier that week and had memorized his lines and the simple choreography. He is the lead rapper of his group, so it felt nice to be able to venture out and show off his vocals for this stage. For this practice, Hyunjin had chosen to wear causal blue jeans and a white dress shirt to practice in.

Looking at his phone, he decided to check up on his fans on social media. It was ten minutes before practice when someone came in the room. It was none other than his new co-host, Kim Minju. She had her hair up in a nice pony tail, leaving some of her dark hair to frame her face and the rest falling down her back. She was also sporting blue jeans and a delicate white, lace shirt.

Upon making eye contact for a second longer than being normal, Hyunjin immediately got up from his chair and bowed at her. She was already bowing profusely, eyes wide and cheeks tinted pink.

“Hello, Hello!” She repeated with more bowing, “I am Kim Minju of Izone. I’m your new co-host. It’s such an honor to meet you sunbaenim.” She had to remind herself to remain professional but she couldn’t help but feel nervous seeing the boy that use to occupy her most secret thoughts. He was tall, she noted. Though she was average height, he seemed long to her. He was very handsome as well. She tried to keep her thoughts at bay. 

In seeing her nervous energy, most of Hyunjin’s nerves were calmed. However, he still felt a tad awkward being someone’s senior. He bowed back a few times and said, “Hello, I’m Stray Kids Hyunjin and your co-host.” He tried his best to smile brightly despite this being their first time meeting. He was happy to see her smile back, her big eyes bright.

“I was hoping to get here before both you and Chani got here, I’m so sorry I made you wait.” Minju said bowing again.

“Please, there’s no need to apologize.” Hyunjin said as he motioned for Minju to take a seat next to him. “You’re early and Chani isn’t here yet. Anyway, I’m the one who got here too early.”

As she took the seat Hyunjin had motioned to, she keep the conversation going as she did not want to stop talking and for things to become awkward.“Are you usually early to schedules?” She asked him. She was actually very curious of his answer. She herself always tried to be early and avoid inconveniencing those around her.

Hyunjin sat back and answered, now feeling better that they had gotten over their awkward introductions. “I try to be right on time, but sometimes you can’t really control it.” Adding to that he said, “Like sometimes even when I am ready I have to wait for my members and it can take a bit for all 8 of us to leave.”

“Oh tell me about it!” Minju agreed. “No matter how early I like to be, sometimes it can’t be helped because of all my members. We’re all girls of course so it takes time to blow dry our hair or try to find certain clothes.” She continued without realizing, “just this morning, Wonyoung borrowed my blow dryer and I spent 15 minutes looking for it until I realized she left it with Yuri.”

She said this all pouting and Hyunjin couldn’t help but realize how cute she looked when talking. He also noticed that she was great with keeping eye contact. So much in fact that he had to skirt his eyes away at times to avoid blushing.

“Oh, I’m so sorry for talking too much, I didn’t mean to talk so much about myself.” Minju pouted bowing her head. Her high school self would have probably cursed herself. She had finally had the chance to talk to Hyunjin after all this time, and she spent it talking about things he didn’t care about.

“No, please I don’t mind.” Hyunjin said with a shy smile. He tried to look at her but failed, instead looking at the wall slightly above her. “We should get to know each other if we’re going to be working with each other every week, so I don’t mind at all.”

He looked over and Minju was still looking down, avoiding his gaze. He wanted her to look at him again like she did before, like when she was talking, like when her eyes were bright and lively.

"Um.... please don’t hesitate talking to me.” Hyunjin said in a voice softer than he knew he had. 

At these words, Minju looked up, her heart stopping. He was looking right at her. His eyes were serious, but kind. His change of tone had caught her off guard and she couldnn’t help but feel that maybe the specialness she felt for him so long ago had not truly gone away. Looking at his handsome face from close proximity, she could see all his little moles and the soft skin of his face. He had little inklings of hair growing in from not shaving that morning, and she could not help but find those little things so endearing.

Hyunjin snapped away. He didn’t understand why he said it that way. Yes, he meant every word, but the way he said it was far more tender than anyway he had ever spoken to someone. He couldn’t really pinpoint why he was acting this way. Was it because she was a pretty girl? No, he was used to being around pretty girls. Having to work under the same company as Twice and Itzy made sure that he wasn’t really fazed by girls anymore.

Not knowing what else it could be, he told himself it was because she was younger. She had an innocent air around her to that made him want to protect her. That was a good enough reason to get butterflies, right?

“Wow you both already have the MC couple look down.” Laughed Chani as he strolled in wearing all black.

Minju and Hyunjin both sprang up from their seats as if shocked by electricity.

Minju immediately blushed, bowing abundantly once again. “Hello, I’m Kim Minju of Izone, it is such an honor to meet you Sunbaenim.” Bowing more she added, “It’s such an honor to be able to work and co-host with you. My members and I are big fans of SF9 and your acting.” She said.

Minju immediately turned herself to Hyunjin, “You as well Sunbaenim, my members and I are big fans of Stray Kids.”

Chani smiled bright and bowed, “Thank you so much, Minju. My members and I enjoy Izone’s performances as well. I look forward to working with you.”

Seeing that no one was saying more, he added with a laugh, “I thought I was early, well technically I am.” He said looking at his phone, it was 3 minutes before their scheduled practice. “But it looks like I’m the late one today.” He finished giving Hyunjin a look.

“Hey, I wasn’t planning on being early, it just happened.” Hyunjin said laughing.

“I hope things weren’t too awkward without me.” Chani said looking to Minju. “Usually Hyunjin can be quiet, so I’m sorry for his behavior.” He added, putting an arm around a now pouting Hyunjin.

“Hey, I wasn’t weird to her or anything-” Hyunjin defended himself.

Minju cut him off, “Hyunjin was very nice and welcoming.” She said with a laugh looking at the closeness of both Chani and Hyunjin.”

“Really?” Chani questioned with an eyebrow raised. Looking at Hyunjin he said, “You’ll have to tell me ALL about it when we have our break. For now, let our practice begin!”

Wow, chapter 3! I really hope this isn’t as bad as I think it is? I guess we are all our worst critic, but I thank you all so much. To those who have subscribed, I see you and honestly, you’re my motivation. I hope I can give you guys a great story. I will try my hardest for you all! Again, I want to apologize for any mistakes that I made while typing.

Also, I kind of want to know more about who’s reading this story. So if you don’t mind me asking, where are you from and who is your ult group/bias in kpop? I’m from California and my ult group/bias is BTS and yoongi. However, I listen to many groups! For example, in stray kids my biases are hyunjin and minho! In Izone I love minju and chaewon. I’ve been also getting into the boyz recently and I absolutely adore sunwoo! Please let me know your faves and give me suggestions as I’m always open to listening to new music!