ten;

“Finally.”

Letting out a deep sigh, Daniel stretches his arms over his head, letting out a yawn in the process. He slips his phone into his hand to check the time. 

5:40 pm. 

The male walks out of the grounds, scouting the empty area and he can’t help but miss walking home with the brunette routinely. Admittedly, ever since Jiyeon’s comment and the night she had spontaneously tackled him into a rather warm yet confusing hug, in front of Seungwoo, Daniel had been purposely staying back later to ‘practice’; which was half-true as the dates were approaching fast so his group including Jihoon were spending more and more time cleaning up their final choreography. Yet the other half of him knew it was because he didn’t know how to react towards the girl realising that she may really be in love her childhood friend. anymore, after

The male walks out of the grounds, scouting the empty area and he can’t help but miss walking home with the brunette routinely. Admittedly, ever since Jiyeon’s comment and the night she had spontaneously tackled him into a rather warm yet confusing hug,

Why else would she have jumped off him faster than light itself when she had realised Seungwoo was standing there all along, only a few feet away with an amused smirk playing on his lips.

He had thought maybe her flush of relief and happiness had gotten to her in the moment and that was the only plausible reason he could come up with. Because how could Daniel ever compete against someone like him. And although he had never asked (mainly hindered by fear), the male had been blind when he hadn’t noticed their interactions any earlier; nothing but warm and tenderness.

“Damn that took awhile.” He mumbles to himself referring to practice, trying to avert his mind elsewhere as he voices out mindless thoughts, walking out slowly, eyes now on his phone. Scrolling through his notifications, he rereads past message in the group chat between Minhyun, Jaehwan, himself and a few other friends before answering an incoming call from the one and only.

“Hello?” He picks up, shoving his free hand into his pocket. 

Finally, what were you doing? “School was over two hours ago.” Daniel chuckles in return. 

“I know you miss me.” The boy snickers through the phone before continuing. “I’m about to head home, I just finished practice with Jihoon” 

“What a good boy. Let’s hang today, I’m in the mood for some rice cakes, tell Jihoon to come too.”

“Mhm… He already left. Had some plans with the old folks but I’m in. Call the little ones too, Minhyun.” After agreeing, the two hang up as he hurries home to change for the night.

It takes the male roughly fifteen minutes to get home and another ten to finally be out the door again. Sporting a red jumper layered with a black denim jacket and matching tattered jeans, he finally makes his way to meet up with the others, smiling with excitement, since it had been a while they had all met up. Passing a couple streets, he can almost see the meeting spot before he stops in his tracks and squints a bit, observing a familiar girl that catches his attention, her brown hair curled softly as it falls behind her, as she runs across the street. He almost misses her, seeing her wearing something other than school uniform or pajamas. Ripped jeans that hugged her figure nicely, a cute striped, oversized tee that draped her small body but was tucked in places to avoid looking messy. Ready to call out her name, he pauses halfway seeing her rushing to her destinations and he retracts his hand that was ready to wave.

She must be busy… I wonder what she’s up to...

Leaving it for tomorrow, Daniel figures he can integrate the female the next day before continuing to head towards his boys.

“Finally you’re here!” Woojin calls out, waving to the older male who responds with a warm smile, forgetting about the girl for the time being.

# # #

“We should get back, the kids have school tomorrow and we do too” Minhyun starts, patting Daewhi on his head who glares in return.

“You need to stop calling us that, we’re only a couple years apart hyung.” The older only ruffles his head even harder, teasing the boy further as the group of five walks down the street, still slightly busy with people walking in and out of stores and restaurants at eleven, almost 12 am. It had been several hours of stuffing their faces and playing arcade games until the party decided it was time to leave.

“Yeah, you guys! We aren’t kids anymore. Let’s just go back to Daniel’s place! It’s the closest here anyways” Woojin suggests, referring to Daewhi and himself. 

“I’m in! We haven’t been over in forever.” Jaehwan slings his arm over the male’s shoulder who smiles, approving the idea.

“As long as you’re all out early tomorrow morning. We still have school.” Daniel adds his requirements before the group naturally migrate t