Back To You

With the business card on his hand, Dowoon stares at it too long while lying on his bed. It’s been a week since he hasn’t visited them, one of the reasons because he’s afraid that Younghyun was lying. What if I was fraud? That thought gets a lot on his mind. He sits straight and gets off from his bed. He goes downstairs to the kitchen. It’s weekend and he hasn’t had any lunch.

Haneul is going out with Yeonsoo, Chaera is in her room with Hareum spending time on make-ups, Minhyun is in his room and Sungwoo goes back home for a while. Mr. Kang goes out playing billiard with the ahjussis in town, Mrs. Kang is gathering with the local ahjummas at the community center.

Should I go there without notice? Dowoon thinks as he takes a bowl for himself and fills it with rice, he takes out leftovers from the fridge and has his lunch with that. Later on, Minhyun comes down and goes to the kitchen and finds Dowoon there. “Oh, Dowoon-a,” he says and he takes his yoghurt from the fridge. “What’s up?” he takes a seat in front of Dowoon and enjoys his yoghurt.

“Oh, Minhyun-a,” Dowoon simply says and continues eating, without talking.

“You’re not going to practice today?” he asks and Dowoon just shakes his head. “Oh, it’s rare,” Minhyun says and Dowoon just shrugs.

“I have an appointment with my friend,” Dowoon simply lies and Minhyun just nods.

“The girls aren’t coming down, huh?” Minhyun glances a second to the stairs and Dowoon just shrugs. “If you leave me, I might become an experiment for them,” he makes a joke and Dowoon just chuckles. “They spend too much time on make-up. I didn’t think that Chaera would spend her time on make-up as well.”

“Of course,” Dowoon adds. “She’s a girl anyway,” and Minhyun just nods and finishes his yoghurt. He says he’s going back to his room and that ends their light chit chat in the afternoon.

…

Dowoon gets ready and he takes a deep breath, looks himself in the mirror. Okay, good, he wears casual clothes for today but he tries not to be so casual. He plans to wear his black sneakers and he gets out from the room. That is when the girls coming out with their face glowing. Dowoon is a bit startled looking at them and they just look at him back. “Girls,” he says and goes downstairs.

“Where are you going, Dowoon-a?” Chaera asks as the girls are looking to him whom is ready to leave.

“Out with my friend,” Dowoon answers with a loud voice and the girls are going downstairs to have an ice cream Hareum bought yesterday. “I’m leaving!” he says from the entryway and they just reply from the kitchen.

As he’s outside, he takes his phone from his pocket. He doesn’t carry anything, just a wallet with transportation card is in there. He contacts Younghyun with a chat, saying, “I’m going there, Younghyun-ssi.”

Younghyun, who is having a schedule, is surprised by Dowoon’s sudden notification. He’s in the recording booth with the members. “Guys, guys!” he says loud, tries stopping them. One person, who is in the recording booth, looks at him. They are all looking at him, wondering what he wants to talk about. “The drummer is on the way here.”

“Suddenly?” a member says from the studio, sitting in front of the engineering machine in front of the recording booth, wearing his vintage glasses with swag.

Younghyun nods affirming them and they are speechless. “Why is it so sudden?” the leader also the vocalist and the guitarist, complains a bit and Younghyun just shrugs.

“Okay, let’s meet him later. We have a recording to do, Sungjin-a,” the glasses boy tells Sungjin, the leader, and he sighs because he thinks it’s too late because they already recorded the drum section days ago with an unknown drummer from nowhere and they weren’t interested at all to scout that drummer as their final member.

Dowoon stays fully awake on the transportation he takes. He looks to the location on the digital signage thoroughly and listens to the woman on the speaker carefully. He arrives in the Cheondamdong area and he follows where the navigation on his phone leads him to. Dowoon can’t believe that he arrives here, just in the neighborhood is enough to make him restless, jittery.

When he got that business card, he also had a thought: What would it be if I join them? Performances? Fans? He even imagined himself being on music shows with later his family calls him, tells him how proud they are, he will get fans, popularity. That kind of life will be great, but he also reminds himself that popularity won’t last long no matter how desperate he wants it.

He walks through the street and it’s the first time he’s in this area for almost a year he’s lived in Seoul. His first year is busy and he kind of regrets it for not being able to travel around Seoul in his free times. As he passes by the fans who are squealing, talking about the artist they just met in front of the building. They even come here? Dowoon still can’t believe what’s in front of his eyes. He believes that he’s near the building looking at those fans earlier. He keeps walking and walking. The amount of the fans he passes by is increasing. Things which go around in this industry are crazy. He still can’t imagine the whole picture of it.

He’s finally in front of the building and he stands across it because he doesn’t want to gain attention by standing in front of it. He takes his phone and texts Younghyun that he’s already here. Younghyun receives the text restlessly, taps foot quietly because of the recording thing going on. He goes outside quickly, leaves the members without information.

Dowoon looks at the building and it’s not like what he saw in the search engine. It’s different but there’s the name of the company. I’m not wrong, right? He looks to the text he receives from Younghyun to meet him at the address where he finds it here, in front of him.

He can see a few fans nearby and they suddenly shriek and Dowoon looks who’s out from the building. “Younghyun oppa!” they say and Dowoon is surprised that Younghyun already gets his fans when Dowoon remembers exactly that Younghyun told him he didn’t debut yet. What is this?

He gets a sudden culture shock and Younghyun calls him from there, “Dowoon-ssi!” signs him to come. Dowoon goes to him quickly and his fans are staring at Dowoon for too long. The feel is the same like he’s on stage with the fans cheering his name out. He also hears that the fans start murmuring behind his back. They probably think who this guy is.

Dowoon arrives in the main entrance. It’s not a big building, rather it’s tall and not as wide as its competitor. He politely gives his greeting to Younghyun.

“Nice to meet you,” Younghyun says and they share a polite handshake. “Please follow me,” he says and Dowoon is walking behind him. Rather than going upstairs, they’re going to the basement where Dowoon is a bit surprised with it. “This is a practice center,” and Dowoon gasps mutely. This is a practice center but the fans are waiting outside? He still doesn’t get any idea. “Wait here for a moment,” Younghyun says and Dowoon slightly nods. The space is cramped for three people to move in one line, but the design is modern enough. He looks to the room in front of him, it’s a recording studio. He still can’t even believe it that the practice center gets its own studio. What about in the main building? He’s still wondering and wondering.

Younghyun comes inside and he goes to the glasses boy and says in a low voice to not disturb him, “Jae, we have a guest.”

Jae stops the recording and Sungjin is perplexed at what Jae’s doing. “Why?” he asks from the recording booth.

“We have a guest,” Jae says and Sungjin puts the headphone away, he goes outside to the members gather around Jae with the addition of their manager.

Sungjin looks at Younghyun. “Where is he?” Sungjin asks. Dowoon is nervous that he will meet the band members in a few minutes. Suddenly the time feels like going so fast for Dowoon.

Younghyun suddenly shows up from the door as he opens it and Dowoon jumps a bit at it. “Dowoon-ssi,” he says.

“Yes?”

“Come in,” and Younghyun opens the door for him. Dowoon carefully comes inside and finds the members are sitting around the coffee table there with their eyes are fixated toward him. Now, he feels the burden but the tries so hard to keep his mind straight. He doesn’t want to mess the way he talks on the first time he met them.

“Hello,” Dowoon politely bows to everyone and they stand up, bow back to him. Okay, thanks, they greet me back. They also try to smile. “I’m Yoon Dowoon, nice to meet you,” he says while bowing to them and they introduce themselves. Dowoon is jittery, because he’s doing it alone. “I’m sorry if I come here suddenly without any notification,” he’s relieved that he says that first, goes well with his plan.

“No, it’s okay,” Younghyun says and smiles. The others generously smile as well.

“But we were surprised, though,” Jae says with a chuckle and Dowoon just awkwardly chuckles along. “So, you’re the drummer,” he states the obvious fact and Dowoon just nods. The members now are just looking at each other because they don’t know what to say. It’s a bit confusing for them because Dowoon comes without a notification. The person that should meet him is their chairman and they think it will disturb the chairman if they suddenly contact him.

So, the manager says, “Well, I’ll tell our chairman first about this—“

“No, no, no!” Dowoon speaks quickly to stop them. They all look at him strangely. “No, it’s fine. I can meet the manager later,” Dowoon simply explains. “Sorry if I was stopping you,” he says. “I originally come here because I want to know things go around in this place, in the industry, in the schedule as well. I don’t want to get into the company and sign the contract first without any knowledge about it,” and they nod as they understand his decision. They look at each other, give sign on what they have to do with this kid next.

Younghyun looks to all the eyes which are looking at him, even Dowoon because Younghyun was the one who found him. “Okay,” Younghyun says. “For that, because we have a recording session today,” Younghyun says.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Dowoon feels guilty and Younghyun shakes his head, kindly smiles that tells him it was okay.

“Please show us your play,” Younghyun says and his hands show him to the inside of the recording booth. Dowoon looks at it and finds a drum set there. He looks at them but he just finds anticipating eyes there. He nods and he stands up, walks to the recording booth.

Jae controls the machine once again and they all sit straight looking at him. Jae presses the button and says, “Can you hear me, Dowoon-ssi?” he asks and Dowoon answers with a microphone there with a yes. “Okay, then, let’s start.”

“Play anything?” Dowoon asks.

“Oh yeah, about that,” Jae seems like he remembers something great. He has something great in his mind, so he turns around and says to the members, “Let him hear the song and I’ll tell him to follow the arrangement there. If he can’t do it, then bye bye.”

The members just agree with Jae’s idea and Jae turns to face Dowoon. He presses the button again and tells his instructions. Dowoon nods and understands that they want to see his real skill, they want to test him on the first day. Doesn’t it too much? But he just shrugs and doesn’t care. He hears the song from the headphone. The arrangement was already mixed with the voices of melodies, but he still can hear the drum well.

“Okay, from this part,” Jae stops the song and tells him. Dowoon nods and starts hitting the drumsticks as his pregame routine. “Start,” Jae says. Dowoon start playing the drums. He’s nervous at the same time, afraid that he’s going to play bad. He hit the drums exactly what he heard earlier.

“See, I told you,” Younghyun says and is proud of himself even though he hides his expression. Sungjin and the other guy, named with Wonpil, gasps mutely and they nod to the rhythm. “Let’s make an appointment with the PD-nim,” Younghyun tells the manager.

…

Chaera comes to Sungwoo’s dance battle. The dance club holds a dance battle in the student lounge. She has seen it before. It attracts many students to watch. The dancers are not just usual dancers, which mean it’s worthy to watch. It’s on the lunch time and Chaera didn’t tell others about it. She goes to the student lounge and watches the dance battle from the start. The audiences are making a circle and Chaera looks over to the crowd, tries to check if there’s no her friends. She brings a bottle of water for Sungwoo, not just as a payback. She just knew in her mind that Sungwoo would be so tired after, so it’s kind of her treatment.

Hareum tries calling Chaera at lunch but she doesn’t pick it up. Then, Hareum tries calling Minhyun. “Hello,” Minhyun says. “Where are you?” he asks right away because he knows that Hareum is calling him for having a lunch.

“In the front of canteen,” Hareum says as she smiles and slightly nods to her acquaintances pass her by. Minhyun is after class and hanging out with his classmates. He’s been inviting them to see the dance battle because his friends get nothing to do. But Hareum calls, he might change his plan.

“Alone?”

“Yep,” Hareum says. “Dowoon?”

“No news. Okay, I’ll go there. Take our seats first,” Minhyun says. “Guys,” and his friends are glancing at him. “I’ve got to go,” he says and they let him go. It’s usual for Minhyun to leave at lunch sometimes. He’s making time with the boarders, his classmates, and his club mates.

When he’s walking there, he finds Dowoon on the way alone to the canteen. “Minhyun-a!” he’s calling him from a far and waves. Minhyun finds him and approaches him. They come to the canteen together and Dowoon raises his eyebrows because he doesn’t find Sungwoo. “Where’s Sungwoo?”

“Having a dance battle at the student lounge,” Minhyun simply says. “He spends his lunch time to dance. He said it was important for him,” and Dowoon just nods. They knew Sungwoo would dance his heart out, like he does with his drumming. “Where’s Chaera?” he asks Dowoon because maybe he might know, but Dowoon shrugs his shoulders. “No news?” Dowoon just nods and sighs a little. “Again?” and they’re used to Chaera hasn’t given them any news since the time she went campus earlier, but she did give them news when she felt like it. “What happens with her now?” he grunts a bit.

“Don’t know,” Dowoon says. “But she seems alright. She went to school with us this morning, remember?”

“That girl is sure hiding her thoughts well,” and Dowoon can’t deny that truth.

Chaera chooses to not telling them because… she doesn’t want to give her heart any more burdens if they knew. She knew it will affect their prejudices, but she prefers on loving herself by take care of her own feelings.

When Minhyun said that, Dowoon just stayed silent without giving him any response neither from his expression nor action. Because he is, too like Chaera, hiding something from them because he doesn’t want to give them any hopeless expectation of what he might become in the future.

…

Sungwoo is break-dancing and it surprises Chaera that he can do that. Well, it’s because she hasn’t seen it before. He finishes with a great move but it doesn’t tire the opponents as the competition gets heated. She just knows dance from the eyes, not from the art. What goods to her is what interests her. The best moves always win, she knew that for sure. But the result is talking the other way and she’s surprised enough to hear the result.

The dance battle is over in the next 10 minutes and Chaera’s hands go sweaty as it holds the bottle tightly. She even wipes the sweat to her shirt and waits for Sungwoo nervously. She takes a seat on the bench around the fountain there in the student lounge and waits until the crowd is going away. As she lowers her head to hide herself, a shadow covers her and she raises her head. Sungwoo is smiling to her. “You came,” and Chaera nods.

“Here,” she says and gives him the drink. He’s flustered much. Last time she didn’t bring anything with her, but this time… it perplexes him. The same brand he always buys for her. He smirks and chuckles, looking at Chaera with no reaction and he takes the drink with him.

“Thanks,” he says and he drinks it right away.

“Did you have lunch before?” Chaera asks and Sungwoo is once again flustered by her question. As he remembers, getting to know her more there is warmth side of her that could make people around her is surprised. Even though he realized it before when he was sick, still it surprises him.

“Not yet. Shall we?” he asks and Chaera nods. She stands up and they walk together to the canteen. Oh, right! I forgot!

“Should we not go to the canteen?” Chaera asks and she’s thinking it herself that her question is very weird. It can make Sungwoo raises his hope up, she can see it by the way he smirks at her. “It’s not that I don’t want to eat there.”

“Just?” Sungwoo says.

Chaera sighs and says, “Nothing.” And she walks first.

“What?” Sungwoo is still curious and he matches her steps. “Are you bothered by the fact our friends will ask about us?” he says the second possibility he thought of her not wanting to go there. She stops and goes silent. He’s right, but that’s a bit uncomfortable for him. “So what?” Sungwoo says. “You just can say the truth,” and it hits the mark.

“Okay, alright,” Chaera says and they head to the direction where the canteen is at. “Thanks for reminding me always to being honest at all times.”

“Is that a compliment or critic?” he furrows his eyebrows glancing at her, tries to read between her words.

“A compliment, of course,” she simply says and sighs a bit. “It’s what you’ve been telling me since the first day I came here and that hits me always because it’s hard for me being honest at myself and with others. Well, these times I’ve found myself in that difficulty even though I told my friends to always be honest.”

“Wow,” he’s stunned. “You suddenly talk a lot,” he gives his opinion and she glances at him. “Grateful to hear that I can be blessings for others,” he says his thanks and Chaera responds with a shrug, because she thinks it will embarrass her so much to smile at him. “Especially when I heard it from you, I’m honored.”

“Oh, you’re exaggerating,” she scoffs and rolls her eyes. He just chuckles. But when he says that, it flutters her a bit even though she shouldn’t because it doesn’t make any sense. It flutters her hearing that he’s fluttered by her. What a logic.

They come into the canteen with Chaera is being nervous. “It’s okay. You can face them like you always do. The brave Chaera,” Sungwoo says and she glances at him and smirks by his humor. Well, he’s right. It gives her confidence to back at being herself.

“Oh, it’s them,” Minhyun says as he unintentionally looks around the canteen, seeing people randomly. That time, his eyes are looking toward the entrance door and he finds Chaera and Sungwoo are coming together. Hareum turns her head and Dowoon sees them while munching his donkatsu. “I think we will be seeing that pair often these days,” and they still watch them until they queue together.

Hareum is eating again and smirking, imagining if that pair is really turning into something good.

“What do you want to eat?” Sungwoo asks and Chaera ponders as she’s looking around the menus and the prices. “Should we say it together?” he says a ridiculous idea and she scoffs at it.

“It’s just making things worse,” Chaera rolls her eyes, shakes her head as she’s disagreeing to his idea. Sungwoo just laughs a little.

“Oh, look, the boy laughs,” Minhyun says.

Hareum scoffs, “You’re still observing them?” she’s in disbelief and she sees that Dowoon is looking at them too. She grunts, “You guys need to get a girlfriend.”

“I will eat…” Chaera says and Sungwoo looks at her whom is staring for long at a menu. “I think I will eat donkatsu for today,” she simply says.

“Well, okay. I eat that too,” and Chaera squints her eyes at him. “Oh, not because you eat that,” he says quickly and puts a defense. “But I have no other option,” he says and smirks as she scoffs. He moves his head closer and he whispers, “I’m getting bored with these foods.”

Chaera is flustered by his sudden move, but she responds to it rather naturally with a chuckle. This time, the three friends are gasping at it. Hareum just turned her head a second ago and she found Sungwoo bravely whispered to Chaera’s ear. “Whoa, Sungwoo-ya…” and they are speechless. “I can’t believe it,” she says, even though he just naturally whispered to Chaera.

“Where should we sit?” Sungwoo asks but Chaera make a quick move as she looks around and finds her friends are there. It brings her security at this moment and Chaera walks to them, leaves Sungwoo in hasty following her behind. “Chaera-ya!” he says as he excuses himself through the crowd.

“She’s coming here!” Minhyun notices and firmly whispers telling his friends. Quickly, he averts his eyes to the food. The other two suddenly make an act.

Sungwoo notices where Chaera is going to when he finds his friends are awkwardly moving their heads away. What happened with them? He wonders but he doesn’t think about it too hard. “Hello, guys,” Chaera says while bringing her tray on her hands. They smile at her and she takes a sit beside Hareum. Sungwoo casually takes a seat beside Chaera and the guys are just nodding. Both Chaera and Sungwoo notice about this, with the addition how Minhyun clears his throat and Hareum widens her eyes and gives her warning to Minhyun.

That is the reaction that Chaera doesn’t want from her friends. But well, I think they’re okay. It reminds her of her high school days, hurting as she remembers her feelings back then. No one knows what happens because Chaera hasn’t told them the reality, but it affects her very much to her next relationship.

“Where have you guys been?” Minhyun asks as he’s the most straightforward in them all.

They’re flustered as the three can see. From their eyes they stare at Minhyun blankly and Chaera clears , “I was watching his dance battle,” she simply says while cutting her katsu. Sungwoo glances at her as he’s stunned at what she just said. Minhyun, Dowoon, and Hareum also glance at her with an amusement.

“Oh, wow,” Hareum chuckles a little and Chaera is casually eating.

“Yeah, she watched my dance battle,” Sungwoo says and starts cutting his katsu. Chaera raises her eyebrows as an affirmation to his words related to what she just said and the three of them just nod without any words. “I’ll have a dance battle approaching in weeks and my team has to prepare for that.”

“What about your band?” Dowoon asks and they all glance at him.

“I’ll make time for them, but I’m focusing to dance more,” Sungwoo says honestly and Dowoon just nods. With this, Chaera knows that Sungwoo prefers he’s dancing for his whole life and being on stage doing acting with all of his heart. Sure, she knew that Sungwoo likes to play drum on stage. I think he will do well whether it’s on band, dancing, or acting. She’s thinking by herself.

“You could just tell me and answer my call,” Hareum says to Chaera as she slightly elbows her and Chaera just shrugs. Hareum whispers, “I know that you’re not in the relationship yet but your actions make us think like that.” And Chaera is stuck with words. She continues eating without giving Hareum any response as she doesn’t know how to respond it.

And her heart beats faster because of her nervousness like someone seems opening her mask in one touch. That’s for her, is dangerous.

…

It’s another day with Dowoon going into the company again without no one knows, not even his friends or his family. Today, the guys will give him a guide to company. The management of it, the rest of it. Younghyun is a great guide, also the manager. They go around the main building, just need to take a walk for five minutes and you’re there. The building resembles much as like the practice center. It’s cramped, but the practice room for dancers is pretty wide.

“So, the thing going on here is that you get to practice, monthly evaluation, volunteer, education, and language class for the foreign trainees,” Younghyun says as they walk up the stairs going to each room. “But since you’re a drummer, I don’t know about the monthly evaluation,” he tells Dowoon honestly. “And the contract for trainee and the contract for the debuting artist are different,” and Dowoon nods. “Just renewal of some points.”

“What about the dorm life, anything like that?” Dowoon asks as Younghyun opens a practice room that is just a piano there. Younghyun shows him to see it and Dowoon nods looking inside of it, nothing much. But the room is helpful with the soundproof design.

“If we debut, we will live in a dorm together,” Younghyun asks. “Are you living alone?”

“No, I’m practically living in boarding house with my friends,” he shortly explains and Younghyun nods.

“Well, we can talk about that later,” and they continue to explore the building. “Let’s go to the practice room,” oh, the famous practice room. Dowoon has seen the practice room many times on the internet, with the famous artist from its company recording their dance routines there. “But we can’t go inside. Well, we can if there’s no one there,” and Dowoon just follows him.

The practice room is empty and Younghyun gets inside amazed. “I finally get in here once again,” he says and Dowoon raises his eyebrows as he doesn’t get what Younghyun meant. “I was featuring in one of the artist song and I got to practice here,” he tells him shortly and beyond Dowoon’s expectation, the practice room is pretty wide. It’s enough for the artist here. “The trainees are practicing in the second building,” and Dowoon makes a circle with his lips. “And we practice a lot there, as well as recording.”

Dowoon feels and thinks like there’s a distinction beyond that division, before and after you become an artist, the privilege of debuting or not.

“But sometimes the artists also use the second building if the rooms there are occupied,” Younghyun adds and Dowoon just understands.

“How many years have you become a trainee?” Dowoon carefully asks.

“Five years,” he simply answers without any hard feeling on it. “It’s a long time right? But there are some people who train longer than me,” and Dowoon is surprised by this fact, he can’t even hold his gasp. Younghyun just chuckles but it shows one of his unfortunate feeling, “There are hardships.”

Sure, there is. Dowoon imagines if he’s on Younghyun’s shoes. Being a trainee for that long, with improvements or deficiency and going to the repetition. Why he doesn’t give up? It makes his think like that, but he already knew the answer remembering Minhyun and Sungwoo with their dreams.

And the company introduction is continued with visiting the band members again and watching them play. They do great cover songs and they all can sing. If I join in here, it’s me who can’t sing then. He feels small, but at the same time he wants to show off his skills and join the jam.

…

“Here, Sungwoo-ya,” Chaera passes him the bowl as they’re up in the night and have their dinner with the food Mrs. Kang made in the afternoon. She’s by the counter. Sungwoo is a bit flustered once again that he’s about to receive it with her care.

“Thanks,” Sungwoo says and he takes his rice before serving it on the dining table. Chaera gets herself a bowl and opens the fridge as she’s about to reheat it. Sungwoo takes her bowl and Chaera glances at him, he fills it with rice with care. To reduce the awkwardness she feels by herself, she stands in front of the stove and prepares the utilities to reheat the food.

“Just wait a moment,” Chaera says.

“Alright,” Sungwoo takes a seat and takes his phone out from his pocket. He takes a picture of her and he’s surprised that the camera sound isn’t silent. Chaera can hear the voice behind her and she’s as much as surprised as him.

She turns to him quickly with a firm expression, frowns but it’s flustering her that he’s sitting properly and looking at his phone naturally. She doesn’t want to think strange and blame him for taking pictures of her. She’s not sure of that because he might take any picture he wanted.

He looks at the picture he took, Chaera’s figure with her other hand on the waist like she’s impatient to eat the food. “What should I name this?” Sungwoo says, partly teases her at the same time.

Chaera turns to him again and she finds him showing her picture. “Sungwoo-ya!” she says out loud and Hareum can hear their voice from her room. But Chaera can’t leave the stove. She turns it off and goes to Sungwoo quickly whose hand is still on the air, showing that picture with a proud face, grinning. “What the!” she says harsh as she tries to take it but Sungwoo avoids her well. She glares at him. “Don’t joke with me!”  she holds his other empty hand tightly so he can’t defend the other hand, and she tries to grab the other hand as she moves forward but she realizes what she does that can make the atmosphere awkward. So she clears and retreats and that makes him realize how close their distance is. It makes him blush. “Whatever,” she gives up and he victoriously chuckles in a low voice. “You don’t know your weird photos in my phone, do you?” she coolly says it and he widens his eyes at her as she plates the reheated food and serves it on the dining table.

She takes a seat in front of him with him still being surprised and starts eating without caring him. “Whoa, Chaera-ya,” his jaw is dropped, he’s in disbelief.

“Don’t underestimate me, Sungwoo-ssi,” she teases him and chuckles. Sungwoo sighs of surrender and that time, Dowoon just comes home.

He smells something good and goes to the kitchen, finds the two of them there. “Oh, you guys,” he says and looks to the food.

“Where were you?” Chaera simply asks as she’s staring at him.

“Hanging out with friends,” he lies. He visited the company again to listen to their songs, and the manager made a schedule for him to meet the PD. The members told the PD that they found another drummer, but the PD wanted to meet him first. Younghyun also told him that the PD was careful in some ways to choose the new member and he hoped that Dowoon could make a good impression then.

“Wanna join us?” Sungwoo says as he glances to his friend behind him.

“No, thanks,” Dowoon says and pats Sungwoo’s shoulder. He looks to both of them and he says with a teasing smile, “I don’t want to disturb you guys,” and he quickly leaves before Chaera threats him.

“Tsk,” Chaera clicks her tongue at him and she just continues eating, but with a lot of thoughts in mind. She tries to be natural, as well as Sungwoo because it’s hard for him to find a right time confessing to her again. He doesn’t want to get rejected twice and he waits patiently until Chaera makes up her mind.

The problem is, Chaera still doesn’t know how her feelings to him. If it’s just butterflies, it can come and go anytime. Any other guy could give her butterflies, maybe the entire zoo. People will think she’s stupid if she needs logical reasons to accept him. She also knew that material things couldn’t buy her happiness, but it doesn’t mean that she wants him to make her happy because that will be saddening as he will live his life to meet her expectations.

She’s searching for the one who can make the best of her and she’s hoping and trying as well to be a worthy partner for her boyfriend, because she doesn’t want to make him a bad person.

…

“Our producer wants to meet you, Dowoon-a,” Younghyun calls when Dowoon is at his room, taking call after excusing himself from the family watching a variety show in the living room. Dowoon was surprised that Younghyun called. Well, these days he was surprised that one of the members called, especially if it was from their manager. He’s still thinking of what will happen if he approves their request.  He has to move dorms, his friends will think something is happened with him days after that. In the end, he has to tell his family, Mr. and Mrs. Kang, his friends.

“When is it?” Dowoon asks right away, walking back and forth inside his room nervously.

“On Monday evening, if it’s possible,” he says. Monday? What should I do? He has a usual practice at Monday. This will be a problem. What should I do? If I say no, it will make a bad first impression toward their producer. But at the same time, he doesn’t want to miss the practice.

“Well, I’ll catch up to you later,” Dowoon says and they hang up the phone. Dowoon goes downstairs with a silent and quietly joins them again. He doesn’t ask them what happened within the variety show while he wasn’t around. Hareum glances at him and watches the show again. She just thinks it’s rare for him not to ask, but she doesn’t think it big.

Dowoon stays quiet until the show is over. The boarders get back to their own rooms. Dowoon just simply says good night to the others and goes into his room first. Chaera, Minhyun, and Sungwoo are glancing strangely at each other. Chaera shrugs as the boys are looking at her and asking her by their gazes. “Well, good night!” Chaera says and opens the door. The other two are going into their room.

…

It’s Monday and Dowoon still can’t decide what he has to do this evening. He’s in class, arranging with his friend and helping them with the drums. Thankfully that he still can focus since he’s not that easily let affects his mind. “We can start from this section and continues until before bridge,” the guitarist says and Dowoon just nods. They start playing their instruments again with melodies.

He’s spending his lunch time at the practice room, correcting and making new melodies with his drums. “Argh!” he grunts because this time he can’t think of anything and the meeting today occupies his mind so much that he can’t get rid of it. He looks to the time on his phone, he still has an hour left until the practice.

Okay, so what should you do, Dowoon-a? He thinks as he opens the phone and gets into the chat messenger. He’s in two minds. No one can help him except himself. No one can decide it for himself. Well, okay, it’s my first time skipping practice, so… why not? He nervously chooses that decision and he enters the group chat. “Phew…” he sighs and he clicks the screen. The keyboard appears but he still doesn’t know what to type.

Here we go. He makes up his mind. “Well, guys, I’m sorry that I can’t come to the practice today,” he types, not sending it yet. What is my excuse? He’s thinking hard. What is better? He decides to send what he typed first. He will respond after they send a reply.

“Why?” and he gets that words from all the members.

“Well, something happened. I’ll tell you guys later,” he types it once again.

“Tell us right away. I don’t want this affect our performance later,” the leader also the vocalist says. It hits the mark and Dowoon answers with a yes. It means that he has to tell them sooner or later. “But you will practice with us on Wednesday , right?” he says and Dowoon says yes even though he’s not sure of what will happen that day. Was I too certain?

…

Dowoon goes to Cheondamdong again, to the company. He takes a deep breath as he is so nervous in meeting the producer, also the famous artist in all times. He’s must be crazy that the producer wants to meet him. Younghyun goes to Dowoon whom is waiting outside the building. “Oh, Dowoon-a, you’re here already,” he says and Dowoon slightly nods at him. The members have started calling him casually, as he knows he’s the youngest of them all.

“Our producer is having a recording right now, so I’ll take you to our practice room instead,” he says. They have another practice room for bands and he will be there before the producer is asking for him. “But our manager tells him already that you came.” Dowoon just nods to his explanation.

…

Sungwoo is going to the band practice before visiting Chaera’s practice. It’s still Monday and he hopes to meet Dowoon there. He visits the practice room in the music faculty building, but as he opens the door with his usual smile, he furrows his eyebrows and asks, “Where is Dowoon?”

“Oh, Sungwoo-ya!” the vocalist of the band says and the band stops playing for a while. “Oh, Dowoon hasn’t told you yet?” he says.

“Told me what?” he’s confused. He takes a seat in a chair in front of the band and puts his bag there. “He didn’t tell me anything.”

“He’s going somewhere, something happened he said,” he simply explains and Sungwoo just gets more confused. “I don’t even know the real reason was,” he adds. “But he will explain it later,” it must be something important, then. Sungwoo thinks. How important it is that Dowoon couldn’t tell? “Just join us, we need a drummer so Jaehyun could play the guitar,” and he joins another band practicing.

…

Dowoon is playing with the band a cover song. They practice cover songs because they want it to make one of their traits to attract fans in the future. Until now, Dowoon thinks the cover songs are all good. It’s well performed and it’s proper to be shown to the public in terms of the performances.

The manager comes in and they look at him while still doing their activity. “Alright, guys,” he says and they stop. Dowoon becomes nervous once again and he knows the purpose the manager comes here. He looks at Dowoon and Dowoon nods. He stands up and puts the drumsticks away.

“I’ll be right back,” Dowoon says and the members just nod. He follows the manager where he leads him to and they arrive at a recording studio. He passes by an idol group just coming out from there and he just slightly nods at them without saying, but they nod back at him just being polite.

“PD-nim,” the manager says after knocked on the door. The producer turns to see them and stands up. “Dowoon-ssi is here.”

“Come in, come in,” he says and they come inside. Dowoon finally meets the famous producer in the country and he can’t believe it that he meets him face-to-face.  Dowoon politely bows as soon as he sees him, and the producer slightly nods and offers him a handshake. Dowoon is perplexed a bit when the producer wants to shake hand with him, but he receives