Cheshire was actually excited for today.  Technically there were only four performances to watch and she had just had the most stupidly funny birthday of all time. The girls had made a pillow fort in the living room of the dorm, with hallways, doors and all, and even invited over Giriboy and Mad Clown. When Chess had walked into the dorm she saw the blanket fort entrance and the note attached to it saying to enter the fort for her birthday surprise. Once she had managed to crawl to the living room part of the blanket fort there sat Giriboy, Sumi, Alice, Young Ji, Bei Lee, Ji Eun, Mad Clown, and Eun Hee Mad Clown's girlfriend. (A/N I know that he's married now but times state it would still be his girlfriend and I don't know her name so we'll just call her Eun Hee. Also I'm super happy for him and his wife! She's so pretty!) Chess couldn't have asked for a better surprise, even if Mad Clown kept acting like he was too old for a blanket fort like the loser he was. Who doesn't love a good blanket fort? They ate all of Chess's favorite snacks and watched horror movies until everyone had to leave with the exception of Giriboy who had stated whether they liked it or not he was too comfy to leave and was therefore staying the night. That didn't bother Chess though that meant she got to keep cuddling up to him and watching stupid movies all night, which is exactly what happened. They all fell asleep in the fort and when Chess woke up she was curled into Giri's chest with her head on his arm and his other arm draped across her waist. She had snuggled her face further into his chest and smiled when he had pulled her closer in his sleep. It had been years since Cheshire had been that happy to do absolutely nothing and was disappointed when they all had to wake up and start their day, even if it had been a couple hours after she had actually woken up.

Chess didn't even bother to try to tone down her smile when she walked to the judges table and sat in her seat next to Giri and Mad Clown. Giri wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders in a quick side hug before placing a large can of Monster in front of her. Chess squealed and wrapped her arms around Giri's neck bringing his face to hers so she could nuzzle her cheek to his. Mad Clown scoffed and lightly smacked Chess on the back of her head earning a momentary pout and glare from the girl.

"I'm going to tell Unnie on you! That was mean!" Mad Clown just scoffed and rolled his eyes. Chess stuck her tongue out at him before turning to look down the table. "K. Will Oppa! Why am I always seated away from the other judges? You make me feel like you don't like me!"

"We figured you would like to sit with Mad Clown and Giriboy that's all. Of course I like you! You're a sweet dongsaeng!" K. Will sent her an almost blinding smile which she returned.

"But Mad Clown's always mean to me! Why do you let him be mean to your dongsaeng Oppa?" Chess could feel more than see Mad Clown rest his face in his palm pushing his glasses off of his face. Giri was having a hard time holding in his snickers at the older male.

"Yah! Mad Clown! You're being mean to her? How could you? She's so cute! Don't be mean to her!" Son Hoyoung added his two cents into the conversation before Mad Clown finally broke.

"Hyung if you had to sit next to her when she squealed like she just did you'd be mean to her too," Mad Clown fixed his glasses before sending an exasperated look to Hoyoung.

"Oppa! I don't squeal that much! You're just being mean! Besides I can't help it that someone being nice to me makes me that excited when you're always so mean to me!" Chess sent a sarcastic smile his way and the older males down the table laughed.

"I just came over to your dorm for your birthday! I'm pretty sure that's not mean," Mad Clown rolled his eyes.

"Yeah but you complained the whole time!"

"It was a pillow fort! What adult do you know that still plays in pillow forts?"

"I do! Giri did! Ji Eun did! Even Eun Hee did! I bet you K. Will Oppa wouldn't have complained nearly as much as you and he's older!" K. Will sputtered a bit when his name was brought up but slowly looked down the table.

"A pillow fort? Like you built when you were a kid? Yeah I'd probably be up for it."

"See Oppa!? K. Will wouldn't have been as mean as you! Besides all you needed to do was watch movies with us but you just complained about how you were too old for pillow forts! That wasn't nice!" Cheshire knew she had won and the victorious smile on her face was the brightest it had ever been.

"Fine! Mian. Next time you invite me over for a pillow fort party I won't complain," Mad Clown conceded as he lightly ruffled Chess's hair. She turned to face Giri who at some point during the argument had lost the ability to keep a straight face and had his head between his knees trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Cheshire couldn't help the giggle that came out of at the sight of him. 

Just as everyone calmed down and was back to their small talk the lights on the stage started going. Chess almost spit out the Monster that she had just taken a sip of when it happened. She looked left and right and noticed Giri on his phone. She smacked his hand and pointed to the stage in a pay attention gesture to which he just rolled his eyes and put his phone away. The stage opened to reveal the trainees who stepped forward. K. Will started with his opening remarks talking about how the competition was happening and what they were competing for and who everyone at the table was and why they were there. Mostly boring things that Cheshire didn't really pay attention to.

Before too long the first team came on stage. Chess thougt that their greeting was really cute and couldn't help but smile at Jooheon when he came out of the deep bow. She liked how they had coordinted their outfits too. When they went back to their marks Chess was really impressed with their lighting. When they started it was apparently with english, she stared them down watching for any noticeable mistakes though she didn't really find any. She really liked their energy and the little mini skit that they added into it. Jooheon stood out a lot which wasn't surprising to her he was the only rapper in their group. They had a couple pitches that were off there at the end but nothing too bad. Over all she liked it. They looked like they had fun and enjoyed their performance which was a lot of what she had told them she wanted from them. As they ended Jooheon called out a happy new year to everyone and looked over to Cheshire.

"Happy Birthday Cheshire!" Suddenly the other trainees joined him making Chess blush and laugh a little bit. The judges all clapped but before they could say anything about the performance Hoyoung looked down the table towards Cheshire with his mic in hand.

"It's your birthday? Saeng-il Chuk-ha-hae-yo!" He smiled brightly at Chess who bowed her head a bit.

"It was the first actually but kamsamnida!" The rest of the judges told her happy birthday too before continuing with the judging.

Hoyoung started and gave them positive reviews followed by Ga In who also gave positive reviews. Cheshire wasn't sure why but when she started talking about how Jooheon's rap was attractive to women she felt a weird tug in her stomach that she quickly ignored in favor of listening to what else she had to say. Cheshire felt that tug again though when she said that she liked the way he looked and couldn't keep her eyes off of him and it definitely tugged more when she gave him a quick 'hwaiting' and he giggled and covered his face. She didn't like that. Not at all. Soon though the topic of the vocals came up and Cheshire quickly picked up her mic.

"You could have done a little bit better with at least pushing your main vocalist forward or center to push focus onto him but the way you went about it it was hard to tell who I should be focusing on. Jooheon kind of stole the show in this performance which while it's not necessarily a bad thing if it's a normal performance it was today since the whole idea was to work as a team. I liked your performance overall and your english was practically immaculate. Jooheon I loved your rap and you looked really good on the stage today. Keep it up," Chess didn't know what came over her or why she had to say something about Jooheon but she did it and she locked eyes with him for a couple seconds seeing a look that she didn't really know how to take cross his eyes before the other judges started picking at her and Ga In.

"Jooheon I think you might just have these two fighting over you by the end of the night," Hoyoung laughed out causing both Ga In and Cheshire to look at each other and blush. Chess immediately looked back down to the cue card in her hand not wanting to see if Jooheon was looking at her.

"I think I'd have to choose Cheshire," Jooheon's voice was just a whisper but through the mic and in Cheshire's ears it sounded like he was yelling at the top of his lungs. Cheshire's face was as red as it could possibly get, if it could get any redder than it already had been. Suddenly, amongst the ooohs and aaahs from the other judges, she felt Giri wrap his arm around her shoulder. What in the hell was happening? She looked up and saw Jooheon smiling looking at Giri with a dark look despite the smile on his face. Chess turned to look at Giri who swiftly pulled her closer to his side and smiled a gummy smile at her without even sparing Jooheon a glance. Chess just put her face in her palm and rested her elbow on the table. This couldn't be real. Stupid boys.

Soon Team Ohjangnam was sent backstage and the judges had a moment to themselves before Team Segyero came on. Chess chugged at her Monster quickly trying to cool her burning cheeks before realizing it wasn't working and just asking for a break which was, thankfully, given. When she stood up and walked to the door she noticed Giriboy following her. As soon as the door was closed like always she had her cigarette lit and was taking a deep drag.

"That kid is something isn't he?" Giri was the first to break the silence.

"Yeah he's got a lot of talent. He really helped me a lot when I was still learning how to rap," Chess didn't think that's what he meant but was trying hard not to think of the alternative. It would be easier than trying to figure out Giri's feelings honestly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Of course he didn't and now Chess had no idea what to say. "He's definitely got some balls though to say that in front of all the judges."

"As long as I've known him he's been pretty ballsy," That was the safest reply she could think of and she was trying really hard to find a way out of this conversation.

"Do you think you would have chosen him?" Giri finally made his point but Chess couldn't help but wish he hadn't.

"I'm not going to dignify that with an answer. You know as well as I do that I'm not in a position to be able to deal with this right now so why are you pushing it Si Young-ah?" Chess was done trying to think of an indirect way out of this it was too much work. She knew it sounded pretty harsh but she just really didn't want to have this conversation. Giri blinked at her for a second not used to hearing her call him by his real name before he figured it'd probably be better to just drop it.

"Mianhe Chess. It just got to me. I'm not sure why," With that simple reply Chess was back to having to figure out his feelings. She hated this back and forth game about as much as the conversation at hand.

"It's all good just don't do that to me. You know the girls are always up my  about  like this anyways. I'm just kind of tired of it," Chess just let it go she didn't want to deal with it right now. She knew she'd have to eventually but she just wanted to pretend she didn't have to for just a bit longer. The two finished their cigarttes in silence before heading back in.

Cheshire sat down and slowly worked herself back to being the happy and not confused person she was at the start of filming. It didn't take long though and soon enough she was ready for the next performance.

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A/N I don't really have much to say here but I will say that for now I am still not sure of the pairing that will occur. Giriboy as I have written him has a lot of potetntial but that's more so because he's just been the closest for so long. That will be changing soon and I will have some really good close moments for Jooheon and eventually I.M. but we have to get there first so please just bear with me for just a little bit longer. I think it'll be in Chapter 12 that I.M will finally show up so again just bear with me. As always Thank You for Reading! Kamsamnida!