We were seriously gonna do this. We managed to get to Nohee’s place after easily convincing my parents about the ‘sleepover’. We settled into the boys’ mansion (Yehyung doing so wearily) and went to uni as usual, but were much more tense than we would have liked. My brother ended up being called back to the military for a job offer and he decided to take it.

“Take care of yourself,” he said, giving me a hug and Nohee one too. He stared at Soonyoung with an intense knowing look and took off early the next morning. I only realized then that it was just 2 girls living with 13 boys. What gender equity.

One morning during breakfast, Soonyoung slid up to me.

“Yewon.”

“Yes Soonyoung?”

“Be my partner for the upcoming competition?”

“Pardon?”

At least he didn’t stumble over his words like the last time he had asked me. Poor boy endured weeks of teasing before Seungcheol and I put our foot down. We were much more comfortable with each other too.

“Don’t make me say it again you know how I am. Please?”

“Fine,” I laughed, knowing how he’d never hear the end of it from the rest if he had to ask again.

We got to practicing almost everyday since the competition was coming up.

“I think Quick Pace would suit us both?” he asked while trying to pick a song to choreograph to.

“Sure, I like that song, you guys did really well on it,” I said.

“Thanks,” I saw him flush a bit before beginning to work on some moves. I helped him out a bit and we were there for almost the entire day, only stopping for a lunch and dinner break. We managed to finish the entire song by midnight and would practice the rest the next day.

The next day, the other members squashed themselves in front of the mirror to watch us and give us any pointers. They were excited to see how their song would be remade into a duet dance. Soonyoung looked especially nervous about it and I gently nudged him, telling him to relax as the song started. He seemed more into the song at the first beat, both of us staring at each other intensely and I struggled to remember the moves whenever he had to grab my waist or run his hand along my shoulders. Nevertheless, we finished the choreo and the members whooped and cheered.

“So steamy, why didn’t the room fog up?”

“You’ll win this don’t worry.”

“I thought you were gonna kiss at the end!”

“Same I thought the same thing too!”

Their chatter made me laugh and we kicked them out to practice a bit more, promising to come back home for dinner, since Nohee and Mingyu had to cook last night (which also apparently ended up in flames, but thankfully Jihoon was also in the kitchen at the time).