[End of flashback]

It goes without saying that wherever Yunhyeong goes, he brings noise with him. And just like every single other day, Yunhyeong storms into the classroom and makes an entrance. 

“Heeeyyyy- Hanbinaaahhhhh” he bellows as if it was a daily mission to annoy the hell out of Hanbin. 

Hanbin wakes up in a jolt in response to Yunhyeong’s daily shoulder slapping routine. Yunhyeong puts abit of his own weight into his final slap before settling down in the seat in front of Hanbin’s. 

“So are you going to this blind date or not?” Yunhyeong whines, as he shakes Hanbin’s shoulder with one hand. 

Hanbin mumbles incoherently as he untucks one of his hands from his arm pillow and flicks it around in an attempt to shoo Yunhyeong off.

Yunhyeong remains unbothered and insistently grabs onto Hanbin’s hand.

“Friend, you’re coming with me to this blind date whether you like it or not” 

Hanbin freezes, and stops moving his hand that was in Yunhyeong’s grasp. 

“Don’t fake sleep on me Hanbin! I know all your tricks”

Yunhyeong’s antics quickly attract a crowd as more classmates file in.

Hanbin quickly realises he has no choice but to wake up. He grumbles as he ruffles his hair and slowly sits upright on his seat

“What do you want now?” Hanbin silently growled under his breath while giving his friend a fierce stare. 

“Blind date. This weekend. No buts” 

“Yeah, over my dead body” Hanbin quickly dismisses him, plops his chin on his palm as he leans to turn his head around to the open window 

Yunhyeong continues to bug Hanbin about his lack of socialism and proceeds to inform the people around him about how he’ll be the one responsible if Hanbin remains single for the rest of his life.

Hanbin, being used to the chatter, hears Yunhyeong dramatically chanting: 

“How do I face his mother if I can’t get him a date? She’ll be so disappointed in me!” He fake cries. “How do I face them?”

They.... were his former members, iKON, the people who shared the same aspirations as Hanbin for 3 years - until he pulled out at the end. It was out of pure loyalty from a very broken Hanbin that he remained as their producer. Yunhyeong was one of the very few people who knew about this relationship as he once trained at the same company.

Yunhyeong knew it was a low blow, a real cheap trick as he glanced at Hanbin. But,he knew it would work, he flinched as he saw Hanbin tense up at the word them and glare at Yunhyeong.

Hanbin didn’t want his former members to feel any more guilt towards him than they already do. His departure was enough to deal with already. In their mind, he should have also been the face of their success. News of Hanbin being anything out of the ordinary would cause them unnecessary concern and additional burden. 

“Fine, I’ll go” Hanbin grimaces. 

“Don’t say anything to them,” Hanbin says as he eyes Yunhyeong.  

A very elated Yunhyeong immediately starts celebrating and bragging to the people around him about his success. He excitingly turns back towards Hanbin only to find Hanbin lying on his desk once more, with his head resting on his arms, away from Yunhyeong and the rest of the crowd.

This is all discreetly seen by Jennie, who sat a couple of desks away from the drama. 

//

A couple days later...

Dressed ever so casually, with a simple navy blue hoodie and ripped denim jeans, Hanbin heads out on the promised day. 

Despite being tempted to not go at all and leave Yunhyeong hanging again, Hanbin refused to be the subject of Yunhyeong’s nagging for the rest of the week. 

How much harm will one outing have? he reasoned with himself. He had also been meaning to grab the iKON repackaged CD that was released a couple of weeks ago anyway, so he decided to treat it as an extra errand.

Hanbin heads into the cafe, spotting Yunhyeong and a group of seated people. 

Yunhyeong waves and ushers him towards the group. 

“Guys, this is Hanbin.” Yunhyeong joyfully introduces his friend to a table of five other people. Yunhyeong with one other shorter guy and three girls dressed rather extravagantly, reeking of excessive perfume. 

“Hi” Hanbin greets the group and starts sipping the glass of water that was already prepared for him. 

The next hour was all a blur. Yunhyeong consistently attempted to push the conversation in Hanbin’s direction, which failed. Hanbin maintained his closed, one-worded replies and blank expressions throughout - he was more interested in the battered French fries in front of him. 

//

To be fair, Jennie was never the type of girl to stalk her crush around. But she couldn’t help overhearing Yunhyeong’s loud outbursts that morning. So, here she was, dressed in all-black with a small black bucket hat perfected with shades, sitting at the corner of the cafe.

Hanbin’s late, she noted as three overdressed girls sat down in front of a Yunhyeong and fellow student from school. 

They’re certainly pretty though, Jennie observes carefully.

The bell sounds again and Hanbin casually walks in. He sits down next to Yunhyeong and Jennie does not miss the girls’ reactions. Fixing their hair and wrapping the loose strands around their ears as soon as they’re introduced to the new male. Throughout the meeting, the girls make obvious attempts to appeal to each guy. While the other two entertain the girls, Hanbin maintains his focus on the chips in front of him.

Jennie knew Hanbin wasn’t a flamboyant type of person, but a wave of relief passes over her. It was as if a whole load of weight was lifted. 

She maintains a good distance and observes until the very last minute. 

While the rest had plans to go to karaoke as their second stop, Hanbin excuses himself by saying that he had other plans. A small smile forms on Jennie’s face as she notices the small dagger Hanbin shoots at Yunhyeong with his eyes, just before Yunhyeong could try to convince him otherwise. 

She waits for all of them to file out before leaving. Jennie takes her hat and shades off, slipping it in her handbag as she walks towards her bus stop. She passes by the record shop without missing the large new poster of iKON in the front windowsill.

 I guess it wouldn’t hurt if I just had a quick look, as she enters the store, heading straight to the iKON display of CDs. As usual, she picks up the headphones and selects iKON’s album to play. She immerses herself in the music as she picks up an album and starts flipping through the photobook.

//

As soon as the coast was clear, Hanbin swiftly evacuated the cafe and steered his way into the nearby record store. 

The store was quite vacant, he notes that there were just the few people browsing through the aisles before picking up the newly released album. 

They look good, he thinks to himself as he scans the jacket photos. Out of curiosity, he flips through the photobook, in search for his name. Throughout the book, B.I is found credited for every song and listed as the sole producer at the very last page. 

Pfft, he laughs in disbelief at himself, I must be the only one who actively looks at the producing credits. 

This will make you happy though ..right? he absentmindedly thinks, his face now more glum than a few seconds ago, as he takes the album to the counter to pay. 

On his way out the store, he notices a girl standing right where he was standing just a moment ago. 

🎶 Take care as you leave on the rough goodbye road 🎶

The music blasted from the sampling headphones she had on, it was loud even from quite a distance away. 

Hanbin observes the girl who appeared very fixated on the photobook, as she flipped through it. She beams with delight soon after, appearing to have found what she was looking for. 

Curious as to what the girl was so happy about, Hanbin briefly takes a peak as he walks past her. 

Much to Hanbin’s surprise, he finds her finger pointed at “B.I.” 

His name.

Once he reached the door, Hanbin turned around and glanced at the girl once more. 

I guess she’s my first fan, Hanbin shyly thought as he walked his way home. The image of the girl being engrossed in her own world, lasted for a long time. 

It made quite an impression in Hanbin’s mind. 

x