"Hello my lovely friends!" Hoshi greeted, grinning manically, hovering over us as he stood at the table we were eating at. We all ignored him and continued eating. 

     "Do you guys know what day it is tomorrow?" He hints at us, his eyes disappearing as a huge grin graces his features. 

     "Yeah, durh," I scoff, "I've been practising for the performance for over 2 weeks." 

     He stared at me with a blank expression as if he couldn't believe that I had forgotten his birthday. 

     "Minghao, you're a loyal friend aren't you? I bet you remember what day it is tomorrow...right?" He asks, his huge smile slowly leaving his face. 

     "Tomorrow...," Minghao ponders for a second longer before answering, "Well, tomorrow's Tuesday." 

     Hoshi blinked at him slowly, his smile having completely disappeared. "Tomorrow isn't even Tuesday, it's a Wednesday!" Minghao doesn't even have to act - this role was meant for him. 

     "Woozi, could you help me practice for tomorrow?" I ask Woozi from across the table, just to interrupt Hoshi. 

     "Yeah, sure," Woozi nods.

      By then, Hoshi had already given up and sat back down in his seat. I really did feel bad but it was all part of the surprise and I was not about to ruin it.

      Every now and then, I would glance in the direction of Hye Ra whom I had seated next to Seokmin. He was making her laugh, which was a good sign. I glance over at the tuft of black hair next to Seokmin. Wonwoo had been looking down at his food ever since he sat down. Was he still mad at me? 

     Aishh, whatever. I can't be thinking about anything other than the performance tomorrow. I need to ace this thing. Although I don't want to do too well. All these projects weren't only meant to test our skills, but also to find our potential future group member. And quite frankly, I didn't want Hye Rin to be in my debut group. No matter what, I had to make sure Hye Rin wasn't going to weigh me down. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

     "Play it." 

      I play the music and watch Hoshi as he danced, engrossed and completely immersed in the song. His previously happy and cheery expression had long gone as he started his dance routine. Hoshi is an amazing performer. And I aspire to be just like him. He doesn't just give his best during his performances. He gives his best even during practises.

      I am shaken from my thoughts by a sudden bang from outside. Hoshi turns his head towards the door and in an attempt to distract him, I turn the volume of the music up. He immediately flinches and covers his ears. While he still had his eyes closed, I signal to the boys I could see through the little window on the door. I made a pushing movement as a signal for them to hide outside. 

     "Ah Reum, what the heck! Turn that down!"

     "Oh right," I offer a sheepish giggle, turning the volume down. "Urm I think they're looking for me. Uhh I'll go check it out, okay? Just continue with your routine." 

      I scurried over to the door and smacked their heads the moment I saw them. They were carrying gifts nicely wrapped in pretty giftwrap. 

      "Ooh! Pretty!" I squeal softly in excitement. 

     "Right?" Seokmin remarks, the purple giftwrap. 

     "Yeah!" I agree, completely forgetting the matter at hand. When I realised he was just trying to distract me, I smacked him again. 

     "Yah!" I shriek. "Whose idea was it to sneak the gifts when Hoshi's practising?" I question, eyeing them from head to toe. Mingyu, Minghao and Jun turn their heads towards Seokmin. 

     "Seokmin?" I trail off as I wait for an explanation, an eyebrow raised. He looks away, avoiding my intense glare. He finally sighs, caving in. 

     "Okay, I know we're supposed to do this at night but I have something on tonight so I wanted to do it now," Seokmin blurted out in defence.

     I smack my forehead. "Wow. What a great idea, Seokmin," I remark, sarcasm dripping from my words. 

     "Okay, look, are you gonna help us sneak this in or not?" Seokmin points to the brightly decorated boxes in the boys' hands.

     I sigh and snatch one of the gifts out of his hands reluctantly, "Let's go."

     I peep through the window of the door cautiously. Hoshi was seated at the corner, using his phone as it was charging. We padded into the room, one by one, inching closer and closer towards the closet at the back of the room. Once I was close enough, I made a dash for it. Seokmin followed soon after. Then Mingyu. Minghao and Jun were across the room with bewildered expressions on their faces, far too afraid of getting caught by Hoshi. They stood in place, frozen to the spot. 

     Seokmin and I hurriedly hid the gifts in the closet while Mingyu ran over to them and dragged them by their arms. Minghao immediately slipped on the polished wooden floors. My hand slipped to my pocket as I ran to Hoshi. 

     "Sorry, my wallet dropped," I say as a lame excuse, showing him my wallet.

     "What did they want?" Hoshi asked, referring to the loud bang. 

     "Oh, that was just uhh..." I panic, thinking of a simple lie. I looked at the paper in his hand and immediately blurted out, "Letter." 

     "What?" Hoshi furrows his brows in confusion. 

      "There was a newbie and she had to pass a letter to someone. She was asking me for directions," I lie swiftly, stealing furtive glances towards the back of the room. I guess they weren't such furtive glances because Hoshi definitely noticed. He was just about to turn his head but I distracted him just in time. "Ooh, did you record yourself dancing?" I say, placing my hand on his shoulder and leaning in as if to have a closer look at the phone in his hands. But I was really just blocking his view of the back of the room.

     "Yeah," he nods as he plays the video. I watch, making a few amused sound effects. When I heard loud footsteps behind us, I immediately turned the volume of the phone up, "Sorry, I couldn't hear the music." I motioned the guys to move faster with the hand behind my back. Hoshi noticed my arm moving so I disguised it as a stretch and yawned for effect, covering my mouth. 

     "Oh my gosh, I haven't slept in ages." Which really was the only truth. I glanced back at the boys and this time, Hoshi turned back as well. 

Just as Jun finally got his shirt unhooked from the door knob.

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 >>irah<<

 Hey, cuties;) 

Thanks for sticking with me and for reading my book! You're awesome:)