It had been months since Daniel had last managed to enter into the Imugi practice room unscathed.

On a normal day, he’d find that a bunch of girls would have already planted themselves at the café within which the practice room was located, under the guise of loyal customers who order nothing but an Iced Americano they never even touch. Daniel wondered when his definition of ‘normal’ had gotten so skewed.

It wasn’t that Daniel didn’t appreciate the fact that he had fans; for someone who spent half of his life completely ignored by his peers, bullied for his looks, and told he would amount to nothing… to finally have people appreciate him and acknowledge his skill was a blessing. And he had lots of fans who were extremely sweet, sending him words of encouragement as they passed by him in the halls ,and supporting him as they watched him perform.

But an irritating handful of them were different. They followed him practically everywhere he went, sometimes even blocking the halls by huddling together and whispering, as if Daniel couldn’t hear the sorts of things they were saying, most of which made him want to escape to the nearest restroom and hide there for the rest of the day. Some of them even knew his entire schedule to the dot (he didn’t bother to get into the nitty-gritty details of how they found out, because he was already scared out of his wits), and of course, ambushed him as he entered the café and headed straight for the practice room just to get the hell away from them. A couple of times, a bunch of girls had even gotten temporarily suspended for trying to sneak into the boys’ dormitory and into his room, which, if the girls ever found out just how messy it was, would probably make them regret their decision to enter any way.

He had a roommate now, which he had hoped would prevent anyone from trying to break into it this time. But the thing was… his roommate was just as prone to catching female attention as he was. Ong Seongwoo was handsome, outspoken and worse: he actually flirted back with the ladies. In short, he was the sort of guy Daniel promised to himself he would never, ever interact with.

But he hated himself for being curious about Seongwoo anyway. He wondered if the guy had sasaeng fans too—maybe, in a distorted sort of way, he actually understood Daniel’s struggled more than anyone.

A second after thinking it, Daniel immediately regretted it. What was he doing, letting Seongwoo get the best of him, anyway? He turned his attention to the café he was in, where he was resting and cooling down with some Yo-Hi water after hours of strenuous practice. The place was void of activity and empty of patrons, likely because everyone was too busy preparing for their own promotion exams to bother with a cup of coffee, or to bother him for that matter. Nobody dared to use the singular practice room adjacent to the counter either, as everyone knew that was his territory. Even though promotion exams made Daniel nervous even as he tried his best to hide it, he was grateful for the peace it afforded him, no matter how fleeting.

The lone barista who owned and ran the café, had resorted to alternating between staring at the ceiling lights and rubbing the exact same spot on the counter with a damp washcloth, in a feeble attempt to act as if he was doing something productive instead of completely bored out of his mind. Daniel cast him a long look as he watched him do absolutely nothing of meaning.

“Jisung-hyung,” he called out. “I’m pretty sure whatever you’re trying to rub out of there is either gone or is impossible to remove. You’ve been at it for hours with that.”

Jisung stopped what he was doing momentarily. “Got anything better for me to do then? I hate promotion exams. Cuts into my sales by half.”

Daniel stood up from his seat, walking towards the counter and sitting on the barstool across from Jisung. “Want to watch me practice instead?”

Jisung shot him an apprehensive look. “For what? For me to envy you over the fact that you’ve had those glorious abs since you were fifteen, and I’m almost thirty and still look like a rotting potato? No thank you. I still need to dig out my self-esteem from the ground you buried it in last time I saw you perform.”

Daniel laughed, the sound of it echoing across the empty café. “Sorry hyung, I won’t ask again.”

He knew Jisung was just joking around with him, but the implicit meaning behind his words didn’t escape him. Yoon Jisung was once a student at Mireu High, graduating from the Idol track seven years ago. He flunked auditions at Mireu's agency, and auditioned for a lesser-known agency called MMO, training there for five years before giving up his dream to open and run the Imugi café. Daniel wondered to himself, if in an alternate universe, he had trained at that agency with Jisung… would he also have been unable to make his debut?

“Why are you so insistent on pulling up your shirt in every performance and displaying your abs for the world to see anyway?” Jisung asked him, intercepting his train of thought. “Don’t you get tired of it?”

“Not really,” Daniel shrugged. “The audience doesn’t get tired of seeing them either.”

But he knew a certain someone who did, remembering how Ong complained about his preference for staying half- and then threatening to kiss him just a few minutes later.

He shuddered at the memory. He knew that Seongwoo was notorious for dating around too casually, and rumor had it that his longest relationship lasted a record-breaking two weeks and a half before he called it quits. But what he hadn’t known was the fact that Seongwoo flirted with pretty much everything he came into contact with. The guy could probably make a pebble blush if he wanted to.

Wait. Here I am again thinking about him out of the blue. Why is he bothering me even in my thoughts?

“You alright there?” Jisung asked him. “You were staring at my flower vase as if you wanted to chuck it out the window and smash it into a million pieces. What did my plastic hydrangea ever do to you, anyway?”

Daniel sighed. Now he was starting to look like a complete idiot in front of his best friend.

“Sorry. I probably looked like a complete idiot.”

“Well I wouldn’t put it past you. Speaking of idiocies, how did your maths exam go last week?”

“Ugh. Remember that burning smell in the kitchen of my room? Yeah, that was me sending that math exam up in flames.”

The truth was, Daniel absolutely at all of the general subjects that had nothing to do with his track—maths, sciences, history— which for some reason the school still required. The only thing he had ever been good at was performing, so he was grateful they didn’t count towards rankings, because he would never have been top-ranked that way. He remembered how much sleep he lost asking Jisung to tutor him for those exams, and yet the only score he could manage was a pathetic 57. It was as if his brain was a computer and decided to send and delete all of what he learned from the recycle bin right before the test began. Now he could hardly even remember what a derivative was.

“Is that why you look like you want to murder my plant? Let it be, it’s only a child. I literally bought it three days ago.”

“I have nothing against your fake greenery,” Daniel explained. “But remember that person I told you I was forced to share a room with?”

“Yeah, Hong Seongwoo, right?”

“It’s Ong Seongwoo.”

Jisung’s eyes narrowed at him. “That’s what I said.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I give up. Anyway, he’s been really annoying these days. He always nags me to clean my room, he said my ramen tasted like failure and depression, when it isn’t even possible to taste those things, and just this morning he complained about me not bothering to put on a shirt, as if I’m doing it just to spite him because I know how much he hates it.”

“Are you doing it to spite him?”

“I’m not.”

Jisung cast him an accusatory look.

“I am. But just a little.”

Jisung shook his head in resignation. “Yeah, I knew it, you’re still the same immature Daniel from years ago who would adopt a cat from the streets because you thought the peach-shaped pattern on its back was cute.”

“OH GOD.” Daniel exclaimed, startling Jisung, who promptly dropped his washcloth out of surprise.

 “I FORGOT TO FEED MY CAT.”

“THEN WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME, IT’S NOT MY FAULT.” Jisung yelled back.

“I’M SORRY, BUT MY POOR CAT.”

“Daniel had intended to feed Peach this morning, until Seongwoo had gone ahead and left him unable to think properly after he had backed him against the wall. The contact had left him dizzy, and he could even still smell the scent of Seongwoo’s perfume wafting through the air. 

But Daniel never forgot to feed his cat. Ever.

“So what are you going to do now that—“ But Jisung couldn’t even finish his sentence, as Daniel promptly scrambled off his seat and out the door.

Daniel the fur of his tabby cat, as it ate from its bowl contentedly. “I’m so, so, sorry Peach. I promise I won’t ever forget to feed you again.” The cat mewled contentedly, and Daniel felt as if the weight of world was lifted from his shoulders. Thank god he isn’t angry at me.

Daniel would never let anyone but Jisung know (and now Seongwoo, he guessed), but he loved cats to death. He had two back at home in Busan, Rooney and Peter, and he remembered literally crying over the thought of parting with them before he entered into the school. He had no idea what everyone would think if they knew that a grown- man like him could bawl over kittens.

“If only everyone else could see you like this,” Jisung said. His best friend had followed him to his room, and was still breathing heavily from having to keep up with Daniel’s panicked sprinting. “Your clumsy, forgettable, disorganized self is just so different from that cool, I’m-better-than-everyone image you show to the public.”

“Yeah well, I have a reputation as Council President to uphold. And besides, if people knew about what I was truly like… being messy, being a horrible cook, being afraid of ghosts and harmless insects, being an absolute cry-baby at even the trashiest of romantic movies…”

And once being broken beyond repair. Once being lonely to the point of wishing for all of it to end.

“Being the most uncool person they’ve ever met… they’re probably gonna drop me like a sack of potatoes and forget I ever existed.”

They’re going to abandon me and mock me and leave me like everyone else did at my old school.

“Wow, this talk is getting depressing,” Jisung said, subtly trying to lighten up Daniel’s visibly darkening mood. “But not more than your cat who was probably hungry all morning and now wants to find a new owner.”

“Shh,” Daniel said. The cat had finished his meal, and had proceeded to settle on Daniel’s lap, resting it’s head on his thigh. “Don’t say bad words in front of Peach. Besides, this is all Seongwoo’s fault for trying to kiss me.”

“WHAT.” It was Jisung’s turn to startle Daniel with his outburst. “HE TRIED TO KISS YOU?”

And then his expression  changed from shock to smugness. “So, did you like it?”

Daniel felt himself blush to Peach’s color. “What? No.”

“So he’s a bad kisser? Did he try to stick his tongue down your throat too soon?”

“NO. I meant that we didn’t kiss. Why would you even think I’d let a guy kiss me?”

“Just because you’ve only ever kissed girls, doesn’t mean you can’t kiss guys in the future. Especially if he’s the type of guy you’re really interested in.”

Daniel had to admit he was interested in Ong Seongwoo. But only because he wanted to know what sort of person could be so casual at everything. To him, a person like Seongwoo— who welcomed trouble into his life like an old friend—was nothing if not an enigma, both terrifying and awe-inspiring.

But that didn’t mean he was interested in Seongwoo in that way, because that would have been ridiculous. However, he couldn’t deny that he was envious of how readily Seongwoo displayed his recklessness and machismo, when Daniel fought hard day in and day out to keep himself under control. Especially now that he was Council President, and it was not just his reputation at stake but the entire school’s if he so much as stepped even a toe out of line.

“You look like you’re trying to justify to yourself why you aren’t attracted to Seongwoo when that’s exactly what you are,” Jisung said. “Stop it with the inner debates and be honest with yourself already. Even if it isn’t in a romantic way, I don’t think you dislike him as much as you say you do.”

“Yeah, this conversation is getting out of hand,” Daniel picked up Peach gently from his lap and stood up, settling the cat atop the sofa. Seongwoo would kill him for leaving furballs on his favourite resting place. “I’ll just go back to practice now. You can return to the café if you’d like. I’m sorry for scaring you like that.”

Jisung looked at him then, with an unmistakable look of worry and sadness etched across his face. “But why can’t you just be a little more honest with yourself? It hurts me too, seeing you have to hide and grapple with a public image that is nothing like you.”

Daniel sighed. He knew where this conversation was going, and it wasn’t a place he particularly wanted to go to. “Because I’m a coward,” he said. “I’ve always been.”

“Then maybe this Ong Seongwoo of yours is just the person you need to bring you out of your shell.”

Daniel had to admit he had considered that too. Maybe he was interested in Seongwoo because he wanted to be just like him.

But he would never admit that out loud. Over his gorgeous dead body.

“See you later, hyung,” Daniel said, slinging his gym bag across his shoulder and heading towards the door. If you’re not returning to the café, stay here if you’d like. And if Peach poops on the floor, feel free to pick it up for me.”

Jisung shot him a disgusted look. “Kang Daniel, you idiot.”

There were a lot of things that Daniel had never expected would happen as he made his way back from the dormitory to the Imugi café.

First of all, he didn’t expect to see Ha Sungwoon at the lobby of the dormitory, who had been Jisung’s boyfriend since high school. And because Sungwoon didn’t particularly like Daniel for being Jisung’s best friend (he was the jealous type), Daniel had to go the long way round to the back exit in order not to get his whooped.

Second of all, he didn’t expect to see a host of vans from various TV stations parked along the outdoor walkway between the dormitory and the campus. Cameramen were milling about, setting up their equipment and talking in excited voices. They were setting up a stage, and he had no idea what they were doing at the school, but Daniel had a feeling something big was about to happen.

And third of all, he did not expect for his walk along the corridor of the Right Wing to the Imugi café to get cut short by Ong Seongwoo, who had emerged from the corner of his vision, reached him in one stride, and with another step forward had Daniel backed against the wall, pinning him with both of his hands on either side of Daniel’s head.

This was the second time he’d done it in the span of five hours, and Daniel was not amused.

He was in fact, quite infuriated, and ever so slightly confused at how nervous it made him. This, of course, only served to fuel the flames of his raging fury.

Daniel folded his arms together, as if to regain some semblance of the personal space Seongwoo had so confidently infiltrated.

“What do you want?” he demanded, trying to keep his voice cool. “And if you didn’t already know, I’m starting to dislike this wall-backing of yours. If this is the sort of play you’re into, I’m really not interested.”

Seongwoo simply smirked at him. “As much as I’d love to engage in a meaningful conversation with you regarding my hidden desires and all of the exciting things I’d like us to try together, I apologize because there’s something more important that I have to tell you.”

Daniel raised a brow at him. “And you can’t tell me without backing me into a corner, because…?”

“How are your acting skills?” Seongwoo asked all of a sudden, startling Daniel.

“If this is some sort of impromptu practice for your promotion exam, I swear I’m—“

“Chillax, pretty boy,” Seongwoo interrupted. “This has nothing to do with promotions. Now I’d appreciate it if you answered the question.”

Daniel sighed. “My acting skills are superb, thank you very much.”

“Great,” Seongwoo said. “Because I’d like to ask for a favour.”

Daniel hated being bossed around and dominated, because it was usually the other way around.

Daniel suddenly beca