"You met two of them already?"
"Yes and they are gorgeous!" Seunghoon folded his hands and looked at the ceiling as if he was sending a prayer or - in his case - simply thanking God. His leader laughed and took a bite of his food. The WINNER members were gathered at a table in the cafeteria. It was lunch time and the hunger had not only lured them into this place, but also iKON who were sitting at the table behind them.
"You are so lucky, I want to see them too." A sigh left Taehyun's lips before he sipped on his water, exchanging a dreamy look with Seunghoon.
"Don't start to obsess over them already, who knows how old they are." Mino felt that this warning needed to be said, but the others just silenced him with their eyes.
"I don't think they are that young." Bobby, who was standing next to their table, cocked his head to one side and knitted his brows.
"Maybe around my age?"
"You just saw them from afar," Seunghoon grinned, "how can you know?"
"Because I have good eyes!"
The WINNER members laughed.
"What are you talking about, you're blind."
"Ya!" Softly Bobby slapped Mino's shoulder, causing everyone to laugh again, before he decisively continued.
"No really, I don't think they're 15 or 16. What do you think, Hanbin? You saw them too."
He turned his head and looked at his friend, who was busy with his food. Or better who was busy trying not to pay attention to this conversation. That girl's smile was still bothering him. Very slowly he looked up from the plate and at the six people who were staring at him, obviously waiting for an answer.
"What?"
"The girls."
"Mh?"
"Their age!"
"Ah. I don't know."
"Man, come one, just one guess!"
"What's the point in guessing when I didn't see them properly? They could be 12 and they could be 23. It's hard to guess the age of girls today."
His gaze dropped again, he didn't really want to participate in this conversation. It was enough that everyone else was super excited and happy to meet the new trainees when he didn't feel like seeing them. At least not that blond girl. Man, why did it have to bother him so much. He furled his eyebrows and mumbled something to himself, but then his intention told him to look up again and when he did, his eyes met Mino's. The older rapper was watching him with that typical gaze of his, the gaze you simply couldn't avoid, no matter how hard you tried. Looking at his dark eyes, you got caught like a fly in a spider's web, but Hanbin felt less like a fly being caught and more like drowning. It wasn't a bad feeling though, he wouldn't mind if the other looked at him like this for the rest of their days.
Mino could tell that something was going on with the younger. His reaction had been too dismissive. He usually was in for this kind of stuff like everyone of them was, but today something seemed to bother him. But now it wasn't the right time to call him on that, even though he was curious. So for a while, they both just looked at each other, then Mino leaned back, breaking their eye contact.
"Hanbin's right. It's hard to tell a girl's age these days. I think we should just ask them if we really want to know."
"Of course we want to know, why wouldn't we?"
"What do you want to know?"
A sudden shock went through their bodies, Seunghoon even dropped his chopsticks. Within a few seconds, everyone was up on their feet and bowed simultaneously, a formal greeting on the lips. Yang Hyunsuk smiled satisfied. He had just walked into the cafeteria, followed by five girls who were looking like ducklings that ran after their mother. Two of them seemed familiar.
"Ah, Shinhee!", Seunghoon called out, causing the girl to giggle and wave at him. The blonde wasn't far away either, but she stayed quiet and just smiled.
"You already know each other? Great, that will make everything easier." Yang Hyunsuk turned to WINNER and crossed his arms behind his back.
"I had already told you yesterday that today is the day I want to introduce five of our new trainees to you guys. Now I have to ask a favor of you. Since you are five and the girls are five, I want you to be their mentors. I want you to show them around, to explain everything to them and to help them when they need help."
The members exchanged looks.
"It's up to you how you handle this, but I thought that it would be a good way to integrate them." He smiled. The girls behind him just looked at WINNER, as well as they shot glances at iKON. It seemed to be an exciting situation, but they were good at hiding it. Except for Shinhee who was squeezing and shaking Sina's hand.
"I'll leave this to you now." With these last words, Yang Hyunsuk turned around and disappeared again. This man was like a shadow, really. Still a little unsure what to do, WINNER just watched the new trainees; it was completely quiet now, not even iKON made a sound. They as well watched the girls without saying a word. It was Seunghoon who finally broke the ice with a warm laugh.
"This is awesome! Nice to meet you, I'm Seunghoon!"
He walked up to them and greeted the three girls he didn't know yet. Then he turned to his friends and cleared his throat.
"These are Kang Shinhee and Sina Kim", he pointed at said girls, "the ones we met earlier today."
"Hello!" Shinhee stepped forward and smiled at everyone.
"My name is Kang Shinhee and I'm so happy to meet you all!"
A rapt whisper went the circuit, then Sina stood alongside Shinhee.
"And I am Sina Kim. Thank you for taking care of us", she smiled and put a blond strand of her hair behind her ear.
Sina Kim. So that was her name. Hanbin looked at her closely. The other girls also stepped forward and introduced themselves, but he blocked them out. Sina Kim. Why did he feel that he had heard this name before? It wasn't a typical Korean name, maybe she was from the States just like Bobby. But if she was, why did he feel like he knew her? And why the hell did she have to look at Mino like that? None of the WINNER members realized it because they were busy chatting with the girls, and it wasn't iKON's turn yet to participate much - though Bobby was right at the front, talking to a taller girl. Hanbin's other fellow members had decided to pay more attention to their food again since there were a couple hours of practice ahead of them. So he was alone with his investigative thoughts.
"I have an idea", Seungyoon suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to stop talking.
"The boss is right. We are five and you are five. How about we make it one on one then? Like you girls choose one of us to be your personal mentor. Maybe it would be the easiest and best for you when you have one fixed person who will help you with everything."
"Excellent!" Seunghoon was happy.
The other members liked the idea too, they all agreed on this.
"So it's your turn to choose then. Let's start with Shinhee", Mino grinned. He only let her be first because it was absolutely clear who she would choose. The black-haired pretended to have to think about it for a second, then she raised her arm.
"Seunghoon oppa!"
"Yeah, team Seunghee!" The rapper gave her a high five and laughed.
No one could disagree on this, they seemed to get along very well, even after this short time.
"Now Jojung."
The tall girl Bobby had been talking to looked at the members carefully.
"I choose Taehyun."
Said one clapped and told her that she had made a good choice.
The next one, Hyohwa, chose Seungyoon. He too seemed perfectly fine with it. The chemistry was just right.
"Sina now", Seunghoon commanded smirking and looked at the blonde. She returned the gaze and covered with the back of her hand for a second, before she shot a glance at the last two WINNER members. Hanbin clenched his teeth, he already knew what she would say.
"Song Mino."
There it was.
Seunghoon happily clapped his hands and congratulated Mino, who smiled and then laughed when his friend grabbed him by the arm to pull him closer to Sina.
"That leaves Jinwoo for Seolhyun. Is that okay for you?"
It was, definitely. The girl seemed to be as 4D as WINNER's eldest, she hadn't even realized that he was the last option. With big eyes she looked at him, obviously wondering what was going on, which caused everyone to laugh.
"Great! Now that every girl has a partner, I would say that it's time to get this started." Seungyoon looked at Hyohwa, who smiled and nodded.
"Then let's go!"
An atmosphere of depature spread among them and just a few seconds later, the female trainees with their new mentors were gone. Except for Mino and Sina. They were opposing each other, obviously a little confused about how fast the others had went away.
"Well, that was quick", Mino laughed and touched his neck.
"It was", Sina responded and silently cleared .
"We should leave too then. How about I show you the practice rooms first? You're going to spend a lot of time there in the future, so starting there wouldn't be too bad."
"It's fine with me." The girl looked at him and nodded. Mino couldn't help but stare at her for a second. Again he had the feeling that he knew her. But did he really knew her or did she just remind him of someone else? He had absolutely no idea and it confused him, but he was good at hiding it.
"Okay, follow me."
They began to move, but before they went around the corner to leave the cafeteria, Mino remembered something and turned around to the iKON members.
"See you later, guys", he waved and got some waving arms in response. Not from Hanbin though, but it was okay, he smiled at him - only at him, actually - nonetheless. Then he disappeared.
Hanbin closed his eyes and tore his hair a little as soon as Mino was around the corner. Bobby, who was sitting next to him, watched him closely, then he patted his shoulder. He knew what was going on, he knew exactly, but there was nothing he could do right now to help his friend.