You suddenly stopped grooving while the song still continued when you heard the door open. You cleared your throat and ran a hand through your hair as the other hand rested on your waist.

“Sungjin…”

He raised both of his eyebrows and gaiety mirrored on his eyes before he scanned the room. “No one’s here yet?” He asked referring to your brother and his friends.

You walked towards the music player and stopped the music before getting a face towel to wipe your sweat. You shook your head as you answer “Not yet. They’re on their way though. You got plans?”

You saw a querying expression at his eyes as his right brow raised again.  “Why did you stop?”

You put down your face towel before turning at him and gave a small smile while shaking your head a little “It’s not like it’s worthy to watch me dancing.” You shrugged your shoulders “I’m not good enough”

You heard him murmur something as he ruffled your hair. Huh! I’m being treated as a little sister again, huh? And before you could even ask what he said, you both heard your brother’s voice and both of your heads turned to the door.

Everyone greeted you and Sungjin and you both greeted them back. You eyed Yugyeom and thought of asking him a favor about something but shrugged it off. He might tell others.

You sighed and bid your goodbye to everyone.

“Are you going home?” Your brother asked.

“No, Jackson.” You answered “B is gonna fetch me and we’ll gonna grab some Bubbletea with the others”

“Is it the usual guy friend?” Mark queried and Jinyoung whistled when you nodded.

When you said your goodbye again, you eyed Sungjin before leaving the dance hall but he didn’t even glance. Tch. Why so cold all of a sudden? You tried not to mind as you took a step.

“Take care, okay? Text me when you’re going home and I’ll fetch you” Jackson said before you went out of their sight.

Evening came and you sat in front of your laptop. You mentally frowned when no Facebook notification from him was received. He used to always like my posts, though. What’s wrong with him today? You adjusted to your seat when a notification came. It was a tagged photo by your friend and your heart skipped a beat when you saw his name on the notification.

Sungjin Park reacted to a photo you are tagged in

You creased your forehead after reading it. He never reacts to your posts, just like, so why now, and a love react even? Hm, maybe he just accidentally clicked it.

You purposely stayed up late to check if he’s gonna message you just to nag at you as to why you’re not yet asleep. He usually does that but almost 1:30 in the morning and you haven’t gotten any. You shook your head and asked yourself why you even bother wait for something to happen.

You were playing with your pen during your class one day as your thoughts start to wander away. You kept thinking about the favor you were going to ask Yugyeom last week, contemplating if you should ask and trust him or find someone else. I’m sure there’s someone else who could help me. As if on cue, you saw Brian, Sungjin’s friend, passed your classroom. And as if a light bulb appeared on top of your head you murmured to yourself ‘perfect!’

You texted your brother right away to ask when does the modern music club practice. You hurriedly went to the club’s room after class only to find Sungjin sitting alone with Atom, his guitar, on his lap.

You were about to step back when he motioned you to come in. You mentally rolled your eyes. Great timing. You sighed and finally took a step to come inside. You were biting your lower lip, hoping it wouldn’t be awkward. Is he still going to be cold today? And to answer your question, he called you to sit in front of him. You unconsciously raised both of your eyebrows in surprise but composed yourself right away.

He ran his hand through his hair before strumming the guitar. Your mouth opened slightly in admiration. Oh how you want to run your fingers through his soft hair, too. You wanted to slap yourself but you couldn’t deny that you really love his soft hair and seeing him it. Same mannerism.

He started singing. He said it was an English version of one of the famous Korean songs that Brian and Jae translated. You can’t take your eyes off of him as he kept on wiggling his eyebrows and smirk while singing. y. You took a gulp with what you thought. It’s a love-hate feeling. You kind of want him to stop but you love it so much.

As he sang another song, you still can’t stop admiring everything about him. You felt like everything stopped, including your heart, as you stare at him singing.

You don’t know as to why your heart is aching. Is it the song that tells about life; the challenges and fears; that says there’s a need for change from being frustrated of yourself and other people; that talks about how you work hard trying to make a progress but nothing’s going your way? Or is it just simply him who always make your heart melt with his smirks?

You sang along in the chorus and you see mirth became evident on his eyes. He smirked more and shook his head a bit as he continued strumming. Your gazes locked as if you both have your own world until you heard the door open and someone panting.

You blinked twice to break the eye contact and saw Brian who seemed like he just ran to get to their club’s room. He instantly smiled at you and greeted you. You stood up and gave him a small paper, which you tore from your notebook earlier, with a note on it.

His eyebrows raised after reading it as he nodded slowly. With a grin on his face, he looked at you and did a nose scrunch before sliding his right index finger on your nose and you giggled because of his sweet gesture.

“Later”, he mumbled as you felt Sungjin move behind you.

You turned and saw him put Atom on its stand as he walk to take Baron, his black and white electric guitar. Brian excused himself and put his bag on a chair before walking towards Lisa, his bass. You smiled to yourself as you think of how cute they are, naming their instruments.

After a little while the other members of the club came; Jae with a box of pizza, the other box is with Wonpil, and Dowoon with big bottles of drinks.

They asked you to eat with them and you didn’t decline. Jae was so hype with his non-stop talking and you caught Dowoon trying to pull a prank on Wonpil but didn’t work, Brian being extra when laughing that he even fell off his hair, and there’s Sungjin who kept on trying to keep the table clean while all of you are eating.

You watched them practice and you were creasing your forehead because Sungjin kept on making mistakes. He seemed grumpy. Why is he being moody? He was just fine earlier. You pouted as you remember him smiling and smirking while singing.

They called it a day since Sungjin has seemed off since they started. Brian went to you immediately. “Let’s go?” he queried before you bid your goodbyes but Sungjin didn’t even bother to land a glance on you.

You and Brian went to his place. You thanked him for accepting your favor despite the school works and club practices. Sometimes you can’t believe how talented this man is and how he is able to manage everything.

“Why did you ask me though?” He suddenly questioned “Your brother is a dancer and his friends are, too. Oh! And there’s Yugyeom, the dancing machine.”

You sighed “I’m…” you trailed off before biting your lip “too shy, I guess? I know my brother supports me but I think it’s just my insecurities eating me up. And Yugyeom… I don’t know if I can trust that guy to not tell anyone about my favor of teaching me dance”

Days like that continued. You would often come to their club’s room and watch them practice, wait for Brian and go to their house and he’d help you improve your dancing skills. You’ve always wanted to dance like your brother but you’d always feel you’re not good enough with people comparing you to him. You have nothing against Jackson, you love your brother so much and he’s even a gentleman. It’s just that you just really want to be as good as him or if not, even just close to how good he is.

“Why are you wearing a short shorts?” Sungjin remarked when you arrived at Dowoon’s house. They will have their practice there since Dowoon has his personal drum set and Brian invited you to come. The others don’t seem to mind though since they know that Brian is helping you with something.

You knitted your eyebrows as you look at him “This is not a short shorts”

“It is.”

“It’s just two inches above my knees. It’s not that short”

“It is.”

You rolled your eyes in surrender. He’s such a nag. Jae should change his nickname from Bob the builder to Nagging King or just simply Bob to Nag.

Jae called you to eat and you followed him to the kitchen. You rested your elbows on the kitchen counter, chin on both of hands.

“Why are you pouting? Are you fine?” Brian queried

“Bob is such a nag” you decided to call him the nickname that Jae gave him just to annoy him and Jae got hyped by hearing you refer to Sungjin as Bob.

You got a bit startled when he wiped your face with a tissue when you were eating. “You’re such a kid” he mumbled as he tried to keep it cool through wiping the kitchen counter with another tissue.

I am not a kid! Stop treating me like a little sister, d*mn it!

“You’re such a clean freak, Bob”

His eyebrows raised and turned his head to look at you. You ran your fingers through your hair as you waited for his reaction but he just went back to wiping the kitchen counter.

“Don’t wear shorts next time and eat properly.”

You rolled your eyes “Are you my dad or what?”

Instead of retorting he just gave you his usual ‘mad’ expression which made you pressed your lips together and gave him a tight smile. He didn’t manage to reply because your phone rang. It was your friend asking you where you are

“Was that Jackson?” Wonpil asked and you shook your head.

“It was B, my friend”

“Oh, the usual guy friend?” Sungjin commented with a sarcastic face and you just shrugged your shoulders. Is he gonna be grumpy again?

Couple of weeks has passed and it’s finally the day for the dance audition in your year level. You were so nervous that even Brian was trying to lift your mood up you can’t just keep calm. You’re just so thankful that no one from the dance club, your brother and his friends, were there. Although they’re going to watch the final auditions, you were thinking that at least if you fail today, you won’t embarrass yourself to them.

Your eyes widened when you stood at the center and found Sungjin near the gymnasium’s entrance. Why the heck is he here? Your heartbeat was pounding so hard and loud, even louder than the music for you.

You heaved a sigh after you danced. I did my best, I didn’t make any mistakes. Your eyes scanned the bleachers and saw Brian giving you a two thumbs up with a smile and despite being anxious, you somehow felt at ease.

But your world seemed to crumble when you saw the result posted on one of the bulletin boards. Your name wasn’t on the list. You mustered up all the strength to hold your tears back and compose yourself as you try to walk fast to a place in school where no one usually goes. When you finally arrived at the back of one of the buildings, you let your tears fell. You tried to suppress any sound to escape when suddenly a hand grabbed your wrist and pulled you.

Now, you found your face buried on Sungjin’s chest as his right hand hold the back of your head. You didn’t bother pulling back. You just let yourself cry on his chest. He didn’t bother say something, too and just let you free your tears. You snuggled more to find comfort as his other hand draped around your waist.

“I knew it. I’m not good enough.” You sniffed

A minute of silence before you finally heard him speak. “But you’re good enough; you’ve always been—good enough for me”

You didn’t know if it was an imagination but you think you just felt his lips touch the top of your head as he pulled you closer and wait for you to finally calm down.

chapter 2 soon