with two cups in his hand, jaemin follows taeyong to the girls’ practice room. when taeyong finishes knocking on the door, koeun exits and smiles seeing taeyong.

jaemin is relieved that taeyong decides to be the one who interrupts their practice. jaemin was sure that had he been the one to knock on the door, the door would have closed just as easily as it opened.

koeun’s smile is erased when her head flicks to the right, and she sees jaemin who waves awkwardly at her. taeyong asks if jaemin can see hina, and oblivious to taeyong, koeun strains as she says ‘of course’. koeun enters the room again.

shortly after koeun enters the room, hina comes out and greets the two of them. her face is painted with a pink blush as strands of stray hairs frame her face. jaemin can feel his heart beating one hundred miles per hour at how beautiful hina looks even in such a normal setting.

jaemin snaps out of his thoughts when taeyong calls for him to hurry up and follow along. jaemin follows from a few feet behind as taeyong and hina walk side by side. he watches as taeyong is occupied with talking to hina about how it’s like to finally debut and gives her advice in her endeavors as a trainee.

when they finally reach they cafeteria, taeyong excuses himself to use the restroom although not before winking at jaemin when hina is busy looking for an empty table. the remaining two sit down facing one another. extending his hand, jaemin gives hina her slightly melted ice cream.

as hina digs into the cup, her eyes wander around the cafeteria curiously. the air between the two is awkward and jaemin can’t think of what to do. then he remembers what taeyong had told him before.

just talk about anything, and eventually, you’ll end up leading to the right thing

so jaemin does talk. he talks about preparing for his debut, his nerves, and his worries.

hina listens intently, and for a moment, she abandons the ice cream.

“just to let you know,” hina smiles, “i’m your biggest fan and number one supporter. so don’t feel nervous or pressured.”

once again, jaemin feels his heart racing. he thanks hina, and she blinds him with another smile.

jaemin likes seeing her smiles and more importantly likes hearing her laugh, so he racks his brain for a funny story.

he begins to tell her about his morning with donghyuck and jisung when taeyong returns and sits at a table a few meters behind hina. taeyong smiles raising his thumb to jaemin before motioning with his index fingers for jaemin to refocus his attention to hina.

when jaemin looks back at hina, he laughs seeing ice cream all over her face. laughing, he points to the spot and tells her. she reaches and misses repeatedly as jaemin continues to point.

without thinking, he leans forward and wipes swipes at the corner of with his finger and proceeds to it.

jaemin, hina and even taeyong freeze when they realize what he has done.

jaemin immediately looks down at the table and tries to find words. “y-y-you had some ice cream on your face and we didn't have any napkins so i just did that. i don’t know what came over me.”

he looks up, and hina is blushing.

of course, she looks she adorable but he can’t focus on that detail because taeyong is clutching the sides of his table so hard one of his veins may pop. jaemin feels faint and is ready to pass out.

a small voice interrupts his thoughts.

“you were talking about donghyuck and jisung. i want to hear what happened.” hina says brushing aside the moment before and pretending to not have been affected although her red face and ears say otherwise.

hesitantly, jaemin looks at her before he recounts how donghyuck almost cut off jisung’s fringe when he was messing with the younger boy and how the whole dorm banned him from using scissors. when he is done with his story, he is expecting no response from hina because he was never good at telling stories.

on the contrary to his expectations, hina soft laughter ends up filling the cafeteria, and from there the incident is forgotten. they go back and forth trading stories full of laughter. hina finishes what is left of her ice cream and puts her spoon down.

“i wonder where taeyong oppa is. he’s been gone this whole time.”

by only focusing on hina, jaemin was able to have mentally blocked out taeyong who was in his peripheral vision, but once taeyong's name brought up, his fuming leader was in focus again.

using her question as a chance to save himself from having to withstand taeyong’s stare any longer, jaemin points at the older male. “would you look at that. there he is right now!”

knowing that hina will turn, taeyong stops throwing daggers out of his eyes, stands, and feigns surprise.

"so you guys were here the whole time.” taeyong says with a smile as he walks towards hina. he puts his hand on jaemin’s shoulder to which the younger boy could feel his fingers dig into his bony shoulder.

“jaemin are you alright? you look like you’re in pain,” hina asks with concern.

“i guess i had too much ice cream, but don’t worry about me. i’ll be fine.” jaemin tries to convince himself that the latter half of his statement will be true when he returns to the dorms.

“hina we should get you back to your practice room. jaemin and i have something to discuss.” taeyong speaks in a low tone.

jaemin tells her that they should pick up the pace before the others worry.

that way when the two speed walk past taeyong, jaemin can say it is so they can hurry and not have to say that he wants an excuse to delay having to face taeyong’s wrath.

when they arrive back at hina’s practice room, lami and herin are waiting for the older girl outside the room. seeing her, they run up to her and drag her into the room. jaemin can hear hina’s muffled voice thanking him.

slowly jaemin turns around. with hina out of sight, taeyong is back to glaring at jaemin. before the older male can say anything, jaemin drops to his knees, and in fists, he raises both his arms above his head.

“hyung, i apologize. i did wrong. spare me.” jaemin pleads his voice trembling. he closes his eyes in fear.

taeyong widens his eyes and quickly looks around before trying to pull jaemin up onto his feet. he fails as the younger is firm in his position on the ground.

“yah, get up before people think i hit you or something.”

“please hyung forgive me.” jaemin says rubbing his hands together. “i’ll repent just please forgive me.”

“jaemin get up right now. you’re making a fool out of not only me but you.”

“no. i won’t get up until you forgive me.”

“fine. i’ll forgive you for laying your grimy hands on hina, but i will not forgive you for putting me through emotional trauma but not even successfully going through with your confession.”