There were three members in Seventeen who were deathly frightening when angered. There were Seungcheol hyung, our reliable leader, and Jihoon, the head of the vocal unit.

Then there was me, Kwon Soonyoung. I was the worst tempered of them all.

And a particular had just pissed me off.

“Jeon Wonwoo!” I screamed when I heard the door to the practice room slam shut with the echoing of his footsteps. “Get the hell back here!”

Before I knew it, I was racing after him. I was seeing red – in this state, there was no stopping me. How dare he ditch practice twice in one day?

I caught up to him in a flash. Suddenly, I was aware of my own harsh breathing, but I didn’t care about the pain in my lungs. I roughly grabbed his shoulder and threw him against the wall.

“What the –” Wonwoo cried as he slammed his back hard.

My fist flew towards his head, only missing him by a few inches. I glowered at him in full rage.

“How dare you leave like that?” I fumed. “Change the choreography?! Is this a joke to you?”

He glared back at me, his eyes quite empty. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking and it angered me even more.

“You of all people should know how much this choreography means to me!” I yelled in his face, spit flying everywhere. I was on the verge of tears now. I wasn’t sure if I was furious, upset, resentful, or all of the above.

Wonwoo continued to stare back, his expression blank.

“What is the matter with you?!” I snapped, livid. “Say something, dammit!”

But, disobedient as he was, he refused to utter a word. Instead, he did something far worse.

In total silence, he reached out his arms and embraced me.

Too stunned to move, I stayed rooted in place. His arms were so lengthy, they seemed to cover all of me. His chest was against mine, our hearts pounding in sync. I was engulfed by the heat of his body and I felt my head starting to whirl.

“Please…” he whispered in my ear. He sounded desperate, like he was holding onto dear life. “Please… just stay like this.”

I submitted to his request and didn’t move a muscle. Instead, I leaned my head on his shoulder when the dizziness didn’t subside. It was oddly comfortable and I was starting to lose my mind amidst our heat.

Finally, he broke the trance and released me from his grasp. I looked up at him quizzically, but he didn’t dare glance my way.

“Sorry, I’m being weird,” he mumbled almost inaudibly.

I observed him carefully. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Finally meeting my eyes, he gave me a sad smile and nodded. “Let’s just go practice. I need to learn everything for tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I agreed rather hesitantly. There was definite sorrow behind his every word that worried me. However, I tried my best to ignore it, not sure if I could even fix whatever problem my friend was hiding from me.

With heavy steps, we returned to the practice room where we both acted as if nothing had ever happened between us.

***

To my delight, it seemed like everything was back to normal. Wonwoo had somehow managed to cheer himself up. Perhaps he had a midlife crisis? Well, whatever it had been, I was glad he worked it out on his own.

We had worked tirelessly to bring him up to speed, and thankfully, he had quickly absorbed the entire choreography. At least the basics anyway – I made sure he wouldn’t stick out like a lost child when we gathered together as a group to work on details.

It was night now and I was back at the dorm. Thankfully, all the members had already cleaned up so I could take a longer shower than my usual three minutes. I tried to mimic Joshua hyung and stand still under the hot jet stream, but I eventually got bored and quickly washed up.

It took around six minutes for me to finish. Definitely my longest record in a while.

I put on my boxer briefs and started drying my hair when someone entered the bathroom.

It was Wonwoo, drenched in sweat from head to toe. I had forgotten that he had left straight for the gym after practice. He seemed just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

“Oh, hi,” I greeted awkwardly. I was suddenly very conscious of how I was. I quickly wrapped the towel around my neck to cover most of my torso.

“Hey,” he said back, just as awkwardly.

Gosh, this was so uncomfortable. It had always been so easy with Wonwoo – what had happened recently that our relationship had changed this way?

I started walking past him then turned around to face him, closing the door behind me.

“Wonwoo, can I ask you something?”

After a moment of hesitation, he nodded nervously.

“Are we cool?” I asked genuinely.

At that, he cracked a sincere grin – something I had really missed. I felt like Wonwoo didn’t smile as much as he used to. Perhaps it came with age and perhaps it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I really loved to make him smile.

He was my best friend. I wanted him to be happy.

“Yeah, we’re cool,” he replied. I was pleased to hear a hint of cheeriness in his voice.

“Soonyoung, can I ask you something?” It was his turn to ask.

I nodded.

“You know I really care about you, right?”

I swallowed. Of course I knew. Wonwoo always had my back.

“I care about you, too,” I answered honestly.

He shook his head as if I didn’t understand his question. “More than anyone else,” he told me firmly. “You’re special to me.”

There was immense weight behind his words, something I could not yet comprehend.

“You’re special to me, too.” And I meant it.

But I wasn’t sure if I meant it the same way that he did.