~ Alayna's POV ~

   I became close with my new rookie friends after the tour and met this adorable little guy named, Lee Chan. He's also a member of Seventeen. He's so friendly and he tells me that if I ever need anything, give him a call. He seems really innocent. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was at least 13 years old. Who knew he's just a couple years younger than me! 
   Lee Chan walks me outside and tells me the different buses I can take back to my apartment. "Thank you so much, Lee Chan!" I say before I get on the bus. 
   "No problem, Alayna!" Lee Chan says back while flashing a childish smile. I take my seat and as the bus leaves I wave goodbye out the window. Lee Chan waves his his arms around like a maniac. He's so adorable, he makes me laugh. 
   I get off at the fourth bus stop and continue to walk home. I figured while I'm walking home, this could be a good time to relax. I plug my earbuds in and take a look around at the scenery around me. Even though it's mostly buildings and cars speeding by, its somehow...relaxing. I was so relaxed that I didn't even realize I returned home so quickly. I grab my keys-- "Alayna!" a boy calls out. I turn around to see who called my name. "Alayna!" They call again. Where are is that voice coming from? "Alayna! Over here!" Who's calling out my name? I look all around me then I spot someone running up the street. It's Mingyu. "Mingyu?" 
   Mingyu breathes heavily, running as fast as he can to reach the front door of my apartment. "Yeah," he takes a deep breath, "It's me." He looks awfully tired from running. I wonder if he ran all the way from the studio. "I...wanted to...talk to you--" 
   "Woah, woah, woah. Take a deep breath, Mingyu. Do you need some water? Come on inside and sit down. Take a break then you can finish." I invite him inside and he hesitantly steps in. I know he feels like he's being rude but I don't care if it's rude or not, he needs to rest. "Do you want ice in your water?" I ask. 
   Mingyu politely rejects. "No, thank you." 
   "Okay," I hand him his water and take a seat across from him,"You can continue now."
   Mingyu takes a big gulp of water. "After the tour, I wanted to talk to you but I couldn't find you. I thought you went home already so I went with some of the guys just to hang out. Then Lee Chan comes in late into the practice room. I ask him where he's been and he said he been hanging out with you. Then I ask him where you went and he said you went home. He told me that you took the bus home so I tried to catch a bus to your apartment but you got on the last one. So I ran all the way from the studio, to here."

   I was surprised at how determined he was to see me. But I was also curious. Why would he run all the way from the studio, just to see...me? What was so important that it couldn't wait until the next time I see him? "Why?"

   Mingyu takes a sip of his water. "Hmm?"

   "Why? Why did you do it?"

   "Because," Mingyu blushes and stutters, "Well...because, uh..." There's a knock on the door. 
   "One second, Mingyu, let me go see who it is." I walk over to the front door and look through the little peep hole. A boy with brown, wavy hair is waiting at the door. "Uh, Mingyu? Do you know this guy?" Mingyu raises from his chair, walks over, and looks through the peep hole. 
   "Yeah, I do. He's one of my friends. You can answer the door. But I'll kind of hide. Just in case." 
   "Okay then..." I open the door and a Leonardo DiCaprio look-a-like is waiting. 
   "Woah, hey there." His eyes light up. 
   "Uh...who are you?"
   "The name's Vernon. I'm a member of Seventeen." He reaches out his hand for me to shake. "Nice to meet you."
   "My name's Alayna. Nice to meet you too, Vernon." 
   "Alayna, that's a pretty name. Almost as pretty as you." I get embarrassed and I start to blush. I can feel my face turning bright red. 
   "I'm sorry," Vernon laughs."I should stop with the cheesy pick-up lines. I should tell you the real reason why I'm here. Have you seen my friend, Mingyu, anywhere? He just ran out of the practice room when he heard that you had gone home. I asked PD-nim if he could drive me to your apartment to see if he actually came here."

   Should I lie to Vernon? Should I tell him or should I protect Mingyu? Why didn't they send Dino? I'll trust him more. Vernon gives me that "model stare". Now I understand why they sent him instead of one of the others. "No I'm sorry, Vernon, he didn't come here."
   "Aish! Where did he go?" Vernon takes his phone out of his back pocket and calls Mingyu. Mingyu's phone goes off and Vernon hears it. "Hey wait a--"
   "Oops! Someone's calling me! Gotta go!"
   "Wait! Mingyu!" I slam the door shut and lock it. Just for safety precautions I barricade the door with a chair. 
   "That was close." Mingyu says coming out of the hall. 
   Vernon starts pounding on the door. "Mingyu! Alayna! Someone? Open the door! PD-nim is looking for you!" Vernon shouts. "You're going to get in a lot of trouble if you stay in there!" 
   Mingyu sighs. "I guess I better leave then."
   "Okay." I walk him to the door. I open the door right as Vernon was about to start pounding again. 
   Vernon sighs. "Finally! I was seriously thinking about breaking a window."
   "I doubt that," I saw with a sarcastic look on my face.
   "Okay, come on Mingyu. PD-nim is going to blow up if you don't return soon and we'll all suffer." Vernon starts walking towards the sidewalk to hail a taxi. I start to walk inside until-- "Alayna, wait." Mingyu grabs my wrist. "I...I..."
   "Let's go, Mingyu!" Vernon shouts. 
   "I..." Mingyu pulls me close to him. I can feel his warm body pull me even closer as I try to push away. Our eyes lock. "I like you..." He closes his eyes and pulls me in for a short kiss. I'm speechless for a second. Wait, what just happened? 
   "Hey! Wait a second! What about my kiss? Alayna!" Vernon shouts but before he could run back, Mingyu grabs him and says, "We gotta go or PD-nim is going to get mad!" 
   "Yeah but---"
   "I'll see you tomorrow!" Mingyu waves goodbye. I'm still in shock. Did he just...did we just...what?

~ Vernon's POV ~

   We wait a few minutes for a cab and one finally comes. When we get in the car Mingyu just sits and stares out the window, smiling. We don't talk for a long time and I'm pretty sure even the taxi driver can feel our awkwardness. I'm tried of this silence so I try to break the ice and think about what I just saw. Did Mingyu seriously...do that? But why? He just meet the girl! Oh my god, what would Seungcheol say if he finds out! It's against company rules! Doesn't he know that? "Mingyu! What were you thinking?" I scold. He keeps smiling and doesn't seem to care that I yelled at him. I don't think that he even heard me. "Mingyu?" 
   I shake him to snap him back to reality. "Mingyu!" He gives me a confused look but he's still smiling. "Hmm?"
   "Why did you do that?" 
   "Hey," Mingyu laughs, "You wanted one too."
   "Yeah, but I didn't pull her in." 
   "And?"
   "And...and...you shouldn't have done that. What if PD-nim surprisingly showed up to check on Alayna and there you guys are making out in front of the door!" 
   "Hey, hey, hey. Making out is an entirely different story. It was just a short...little...kiss..." Mingyu stares off out the window again, still smiling as he bites his lip.
   "You're lucky I came and not Seungcheol. What's PD-nim going to say if we told him you actually went to her apartment?"
   "...I don't know but I know he's going to be really mad at me..." His smile fades and he sighs. I start to get really curious. What did that girl do to him?
   "You still haven't answered my question."
   "I just did."
   "No, the question is: why did you do it?"
   "Why? Um..."

~ Mingyu's POV ~

   Why did I do it? There were plenty of other times to do it. Why couldn't I just wait? I think back to when I first saw her. My heart races just thinking about her. "Her eyes."
   "Her eyes?" Vernon asks confused, "Everyone has eyes."
   "Yeah, but, her's are different. They're filled with love, compassion, care, and, the one thing that made her different that the rest, the way she looked at me."
   "What do you mean?"
   "She looked at me like she cared. She didn't look at me from a fangirl perspective, she didn't look at me from a normal person perspective. She didn't even see me as idol. She saw me as a regular person. She gave me some hope that I can still a normal, happy life...with her."
   "Oh god, Mingyu."
   "What! It's true!"
   "How do you know that? We're you too naïve to see? What if she was playing with your heart? What if she was all faking just to lure you in like that? You gotta think sometimes, Mingyu. It could hurt you if you don't try."
   "I know...but she gave me so much hope that I..." I try to think of the right words. "That I kind of just forgot about reality." I hope Vernon understands what I'm trying to say. 
   "Okay, I get it now. When she opened the door, she looked at me the same way. Well, probably because she didn't know who I was but when I told her that I was apart of Seventeen, her expression never changed. She still had the compassion to protect you. In her eyes, I didn't look like an idol. To be honest, now, I'm kind of jealous that you finally have some hope in your life." 
   "Thank you, Vernon."
   "For what?"
   "For understanding."

~ Reader's POV ~

   The taxi driver drops Mingyu and Vernon at the studio. They bow to thank the taxi driver and they pay him. When they walk into the practice room the others are relived that Vernon found him. "Mingyu!" They shout. A few members walk over to him. 
   "Where did you go?" Dino asks.
   "Do you wanna tell them where you went or should I tell them?"  
   Mingyu blushes and starts to feel a little shy about telling them what happened. But he decides to just tell them before this all comes back to him later. "I went to go see, Alayna."
   Jeonghan's head pops up at the sound of her name. Was it the Alayna he met at the bookstore? "Alayna?" Jeonghan asks with jealously starting to fire up his eyes. 
   "Yes?" Mingyu asks confused. "Do you know her?" 
   Jeonghan doesn't want to start any drama. So he tries to lie to Mingyu. "No, sorry, I don't. I thought I did because the name sounded so familiar."
   "Well she's a new trainee if that helps, hyung." Dino says. 
   "Yeah, that's probably where I heard her name." He says coldly. Jeonghan fires up with anger, jealousy, and a little bit of sadness.

   Mingyu continues his reason for leaving early. "Well, the reason I left to...see here is because..." Mingyu pauses, "Because..." 
   "Because?" Vernon annoyingly repeats. The others wait quietly for Mingyu to answer. 
   "Why is this so hard?" Mingyu thinks to himself. "I...like...her..."
   "What did you say, hyung?" The8 asks.
   "Okay, I'm done with this," Vernon interrupts, "He went over to Alayna's 'cause he likes her. In fact, before he left, he kissed her." Out of anger and jealousy, Jeonghan storms out of the practice room. 
   "What happened to him?" Woozi asks. 
   "I don't know but I'll go talk to him," S.Coups reassures. Mingyu starts to feel guilty but at the same time not. If he really liked Alayna, he would have made a move first.

~ S.Coups's POV ~

   I walk out of the practice room to check on Jeonghan. Jeonghan sits on a bench, crying really hard. I hope he's not struggling trying to breathe. "Hey, uh, are you okay?" I ask softly to hopefully calm him down a little bit. Jeonghan looks away to try and hide his tears. I try to comfort him a little more by sitting down next to him but he scoots away.

   "Why?" Jeonghan sobs, "Why does it hurt...so...much?" 
   I pat him on the back, it's awkward, but I try my best to calm him down. "It's okay." I reassure.
   "Is it really?" Jeonghan snaps. "I just met her but I'm going through so much pain. I didn't realize...I cared...a lot. I thought she was different." Jeonghan's emotions rapidly switches to white-hot anger. "I guess she's just like the rest." I don't know how to respond. I've never really been in a relationship or fell for some one as hard as Jeonghan did. I don't know what to say so I quietly sit next to Jeonghan, supporting him.

*******

   A couple minutes pass and Jeonghan calms down. The practice room door opens and Joshua walks out. He sees that Jeonghan had been crying and he's taken back in shock. He's never seen Jeonghan get so emotional. "Are you okay, hyung?" Joshua asks. 
   Jeonghan sniffles and tries to hold back the tears, "Yeah, I am now." 
   Joshua leans closer to me. "What happened?" He whispers.
   "I'll tell you later," I whisper back. I stand up and motion to Joshua that we should give Jeonghan some alone time. Joshua also gets up and follows me outside.

   "So, what happened?" Joshua asks again.
   "Earlier today, me and Jeonghan went to a bookstore but we look around by ourselves. Before we left, Jeonghan met some girl. I'm guessing that, that girl is Alayna." 
   "Oh, I see," Joshua says a little heartbroken.
   "He was acting all lovey dovey with the heart eyes and all that. I've never seen him like that so I asked him why he likes that girl if he doesn't even know her. He said it was because of her eyes. No one has ever, or will ever, look at him like that now that we're idols. I know the way I say it doesn't sound that bad but it obviously meant a lot to him."