“Now that midterms are over it’s about time you guys got a break! What extra credit do you want to do?” Your teacher asked the class pleasantly.

You were hardly even paying attention. You stayed sat in the back, quietly doodling stories in the back of your notebook.

When you kept to yourself, the easiest way to get your feelings outside of you was to write it down on a piece of a paper. You didn’t have to know what was wrong to be able to put words to how drained you were constantly feeling… It was like drinking a glass of water, and once you got to the bottom you realized it was only so refreshing because duh, there was ice in it.

By the time you had finished your drabble, your short story, your book you had finally realized what it was that made you need to write whatever you had written in the first place.

In moments like these, moments when you couldn’t look out the window without wondering what Jihoon was doing, what Jihoon had eaten today, how much Jihoon had slept the night before you needed to write more than ever.

Illustrating a character in completely different circumstances than you, with the same attitude, was the only thing that kept you sane in moments like these. And when that couldn’t help you ease the way you felt about Jihoon because these feelings had never been so overwhelming before you did other things.

You wrote songs, you drew pictures of him, painted things that made you think of him, you wrote poetry, and cried over karaoke.

It was all temporary.

You knew that the only real solution to your problem was hundreds of miles away.

“What if we did another busking project?” Someone in your class suggested. The other kids all began to mumble their excitement, and as such, they turned to you.

As you had barely been listening, your brain had to do a quick catch-up to figure out why everyone’s eyes were suddenly on you. You set your pencil down, your face reddening.

“Why is everyone looking at me?” You mumbled, but by the time you had spoken, you knew why.

The last time you guys had done this you had set pretty much everything up. You picked the venue, chose the songs, helped elect the parts among members. You went shopping for all the clothes, did all the advertising.

It had been a lot, but when you were passionate about something you were practically an unstoppable force.

No one spoke, just stared at you with wide eyes waiting for you to stop thinking over what they already knew you were thinking over. You sighed.

“You guys pick the songs and tell me who wants to be in it. I’ll arrange every event you want to do.”

And like that, the Infinity Idols were back in business. Name derived from the idea that no matter traveling from America to Korea, or even traveling all the way to infinity the group of exchange students would stick together through thick and thin.

Even though you clashed with some of the other students you were here with from time to time, you knew that this year or so that you spent in this country with these people would stick with you all for forever.

That’s why you had suggested the name.

You guys would remember these days forever.

The list was put together in only a short fifteen minutes.

You thought that was probably the fastest your class had ever agreed on anything.

You guys would do three big group dances, Boy with Luv by BTS, Fancy by Twice, and Save Me, Save You by WJSN. After that, three subunit dances, a smaller version of Cheer Up by Twice, a smaller version of Exo’s Growl, and Sistar’s Touch My Body. Then a number of solo dances for the best performing students in the group to be voted on at the end of the week. Then one more “surprise” group dance at the end. A performance of Mansae, with all 17 members of your exchange program.

All that sounded like to you was a lot of arrangements for you to figure out. A lot of trying to figure out who in the group needed to do what and be where.

Some of the less experienced members would certainly need assistance learning the dances. They couldn’t understand the videos so they had to be taught the dance… That meant you would have to learn multiple parts of all the dances you guys were doing if you were going to do this right…

And that was the best part about the temporary solutions. The rapid look for an escape for any painful feeling that was coursing through your veins at the moment.

Once you found something to throw yourself into, that was that.

You spent hours at a computer, writing down formations, figuring out who would be who. You spent even more hours in the dance room at your school, running verses and choruses and all the different parts you could cram into your brain, and then build into your routine as if you had been born doing these dance moves.

That meant practicing every day, two sometimes four hours. That was between your actual job and all of the promotional things you had to sort out.

Your teacher wanted you guys to have an internet following. People to get excited about your busking event. People who would be fans of the Infinity Idols.

That meant running three different types of social media, trying to keep everything updated constantly.

You had help with that aspect. Julia and Caitlin were more than willing to help get pictures and videos of all the students to post. They helped figure out the hashtags and decided when to post.

Likewise, they helped you solidify your ideas and even came up with their own for wardrobe and locations. They helped teach others dances and reminded you to eat and sleep…

Not that you did.

You couldn’t at this point. You were up early running dances, and studying. You were out all afternoon with work and school and you were up all night practicing and practicing and practicing.

Even worse when you did try to go to sleep, you couldn’t. All you could do was run choreography, try to remember if you had gotten all of your forms figured out, write more music, make your own choreography to songs that didn’t yet have any.

You could barely get a grip on yourself, on all this inspiration.

You weren’t a songwriter, or a choreographer, or an idol or even a dancer.

But then… If you weren’t all of those things what were you?

“Almost got it, Annie,” you said softly. “You’re just a little early on the arms though. It goes like-”

You sang the bridge part again, this time slowly, showing her each step up your foot, each sway of your hip, and each place you put your arms. Annie nodded, and did it again, this time getting the timing perfect.

You smiled.

“There we go! Keep practicing like that and Mina herself will be running around calling you a dancer. Take a five minute a break okay?” You said, patting her shoulder. She nodded and raced off to where the others were all “taking a break” on the sideline.

You chuckled to yourself.

As if you could really call it taking a break when Paige was around. She was the sweetest girl, always playing real bangers that made everyone dance through break just as hard as they normally would when actually practicing instead of resting.

You sat down and pulled out your phone, silently filming the other kids interacting with one another.

Another thing you loved about all of this, There weren’t many moments in this group of students where you could sneak away, For some reason, you all were too close for that. Despite only having been together for such a small amount of time, all the time you all spent together, learning a language, trying to fit in at this strange new country they tended to pay a lot of attention to you.

A courtesy friends back at home hardly extended to you.

You were used to being paid attention to only when it was convenient for the people you were with. Not constantly and all the time.

You had never had to hide your emotions so much around a group of people. Finding a moment alone during classes or practice was… Well, impossible.

Sometimes the way they looked at you reminded you of the way that Jihoon looked at you… Like he knew you too well.

You sighed.

Huh, Jihoon.

How long had it been since that night?

Almost a month now. Had to be. Even Alex was starting to do the dances like any idol would. Practicing together every day for an hour, and it was like second nature to fall into position.

You missed the thrill of possibly running into Jihoon on the street.

You missed seeing him look at you and smiling.

You missed hearing his laugh, seeing his eyes go wide, and his eyebrows go together when he thought you to be curious.

You set your phone down on the ground and looked across the room at the creaking open practice room door. In the doorway stood your teacher. The two of you made eye contact, so you got to your feet and headed over towards her.

Moment alone, now over.

“Alright, so final busking details are finally in order, all I have to do is confirm our location,” you said to her. Your teacher smiled.

“Speaking of… You know the Infinity Idols sure do have a strange amount of Japanese fans.”

Your teacher was right. It was the most uncanny thing. Out of all the demographics and the Japanese liked them the best online?

You cracked a curious smile at your teacher.

“We really do… But what does that…?”

Your teacher squealed and did a little jump where she was standing.

“Oh, I can’t keep it in anymore! We are doing the busking trip in Japan!”

Paige cut the music off and everyone in the room turned to your teacher. Caitlin was the first to speak.

“Wh… What?”

“We are going to Japan!” Your teacher exclaimed again. “I got it approved with all of your parents, the board and everything and we are going to Japan.”

You scoffed and dropped your phone.

“You’re kidding?”

“I would never kid about something like that,” your teacher replied seriously.

-

The day that you were supposed to come to Korea, you weren’t very excited.

You were, however, extremely stressed.

Worried you had left something.

Worried your parents would come and drag you out of the airport.

Worried that a number of things would happen that… Just… Didn’t.

But you couldn’t think about anything but those things.

Going to Japan, you weren’t stressed at all.

You left your headphones back at your temporary home. You nearly forgot your notebook with the dance arrangements, and you almost lost your phone on the way there.

But you weren’t stressed.

You were… Confident.

Going to Japan meant that you would see Jihoon…

“Let’s add another dance to the busking since we are going to be in Japan! Let’s do Seventeen’s new song, Happy Ending. I mean, can you even imagine? Aren’t they there right now?”

“Seventeen is in Osaka too… Aren’t they? We’ll be there at the same time as them!”

“Osaka is a huge city, what are the odds…”

Caitlin and Julia looked at you, a knowing look spread across their faces.

You rolled your eyes and looked away, already starting the arrangements in your head.

Japan meant, last minute scheduling, completely on-schedule posts about the busking activity, extra hours trying to learn Soonyoung’s god-complicated choreography while you tried to get everything arranged right.

You stayed up late in the hotel fitness room at night, and you didn’t leave the hotel for the whole first week you were in Japan except for class activities and location scouting, except for once, late at night when you went to the store, hoping to god to find some Udon noodles.

“You really are in Osaka.”

You turned, frowning slightly, trying to place where you knew that voice. You couldn’t believe who was standing there when you finally figured it out.

“Soonyoung?” You asked with a laugh. He smiled, his eyes becoming rounder the more upturned his lips became.

“Y/n! I have heard rumors that I might run into you on the street, but never did I actually think it would happen.”

“Hey, I’m making my way through the group,” you responded with a laugh and a shrug. “What would I do if I wasn’t constantly running into you guys while trying to get food?”

“Udon noodles?” Soonyoung asked you, gesturing to a noodle machine dispenser not far from you two. You hummed.

“Read my mind.”

But even seeing Soonyoung didn’t make you stop thinking.

All you could think about was that dumb choreography.

Wave your right finger down, slide your right foot forward to the beat, turn and take center, reach up with your right hand, fall back. Bounce in place as you bring your arm down, move into the next position, arms out, then up, then pull and-

Soonyoung chuckled, which made your face redden a little.

“I can’t get the timing at the end,” you mumbled softly. “I don’t know why it’s not that hard.”

“Oh, is your busking group running the Happy Ending choreography?”

You hummed as you shoved some noodles into your mouth.

“Last minute addition to our lineup… How do you know about the busking?” You asked. Soonyoung slurped up his own noodles.

“Jihoon was telling us about it.”

You wanted to say that Jihoon shouldn’t really know much about the busking event, but you thought better of it. Jihoon had his ways of knowing things, it wasn’t really anything for you to judge.

“How is he? Sleeping? Eating?”

“Does he ever sleep?” Soonyoung responded with a roll of his eyes. “He’s too busy trying to come up with the next comeback.”

You sighed. You couldn’t really say you were surprised.

“At least tell me he’s eating,” you stated with a sigh.

“Maybe a little too much,” Soonyoung laughed. “What about you? What can I report to the boss?”

You rested your head on your hand as you chewed the noodles. Trying to figure out the best way to word what would come next.

“Well, this is all I’ve had today to eat and I’ve been averaging about three hours a night? I think?” You replied. Soonyoung made a face, so you smiled nervously.

“I can’t help it, I have a passion,” you replied. “I couldn’t sleep if I wanted to.”

“Peas in a pod you two are,” he said with a chuckle. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Smile for the picture.”

You threw up a peace sign and smiled through your exhaustion at the camera.

Click, click.

Soonyoung looked at the pictures silently for a moment and then nodded.

“Need help with the counts?” He asked you softly. You shook your head.

“Nah, counts just mess me up. I just need to watch it a few more times.”

Soonyoung nodded and gestured to his now empty bowl of noddles.

“Well, as good as it was to see you-”

“Tell Jihoon I say hi,” you finished for Soonyoung. He smiled at you again, that soft expression settling over his face again. “I’ll see you Soonyoung.”
“And hopefully I you,” he replied. “Don’t worry, I’ll be telling Jihoon all about this encounter. Can’t believe we haven’t run into you sooner. You’ve been here all week right?”

“All week is accurate. I’ve been staying in actually. When I get like this… I do nothing but get stuff done.”

Soonyoung laughed and shot you a wave.

“Goodbye!”

As you watched him wander out of the store and noticed a shop attendant giving you an odd look… Probably because of the Korean coming from someone who so obviously wasn’t Korean in the middle of Japan, you couldn’t help but think it was kind of nice to be in the same city as Seventeen again.

Even if you hadn’t seen him just yet.